ABSTRACT
This chapter argues subterranean space is also a site of performance and transformation. Such an argument is evident in a range of films including The King of Comedy and Wayne's World, which constructs the basement as a locale that offers a form of potential escape rather than entrapment. The space is exploited for the secrecy that it offers, presenting a self-contained sanctuary from the world, which its occupants can take advantage of in order to adopt and hone their performance style. Functioning as a sanctuary, the basement as a site of carnivalesque behavior and attitudes allows the protagonists to break free from the restrictions placed on them and as a site of expressivity and performance, belies their social status outside of this space. Discussing theatre, Gaelle Breton states that once the performance begins the limits of physical space become irrelevant and this is confirmed in the transformational space of the basement in both The King of Comedy and Wayne's World.
