Laurent Mourguet first worked as a silk worker, then as a hawker, before becoming a tooth puller in 1797. In order to attract people, he started performing the farces of Polichinelle with glove puppets in a hand-puppet booth placed next to the chair where his patients underwent surgery. Mourguet learnt how to be a manipulator, a builder, a set designer and a stagehand in one of the ‘crèche’ from Lyon–an auditorium where the Nativity is performed at Christmas time, but where a secular repertoire is performed the rest of the year. Accompanied by violinist and actor ‘Père Thomas’ (Lambert Grégoire Ladré), he gained a growing success and thus decided to dedicate his life solely to this job, performing most notably in the ‘chinese garden’ of the Fourvière hill (Lyon, France).

The first character he came up with was Gnafron, inspired by Père Thomas, then he created Guignol, who takes on some characteristics from Père Coquard (a character from the plays of the 'crèche'), and finally, he came up with Madelon, Guignol’s partner. Traditionally, the apparition of Guignol is dated back to 1808, but nothing really proves it: there are no written documents left from the beginning of Mourguet’s activities. After the departure of Père Thomas, Mourguet created a small family troupe with his son Étienne, his daughter Rose-Pierrette, and her husband, Louis Josserand. They performed not only in Lyon, but also in neighbouring towns, and as far as Vienne, Roanne or Saint-Étienne. In 1826, the Café du Caveau (Lyon) welcomed the first permanent Guignol show. We can only be sure that it was directed by Étienne Mourguet from 1838 onwards. Laurent retired in 1840, and spent the rest of his life in Vienne, Isère (France).

The plays attributed to Laurent Mourguet, published by Jean-Baptiste Onofrio in 1865, have probably been progressively created with the contribution of other members of the troupe. The oldest traces known of them are the manuscripts given in 1852 to the Rhône prefecture in order to get a censorship visa, The manuscripts were given by a member of the troupe, Victor-Napoléon Vuillerme-Dunant, who signed them with his own name.