KEY POINTS:
New York performance artist Sara Juli's one-woman show is high stakes theatre. She is in town to talk to Aucklanders about money; more precisely, whether they want her life savings.
Each night, the 29-year-old brings $5000 cash from her bank to the theatre for her show The Money Conversation and offers it to the audience, telling them: "Take it - it's for you."
She starts with $20 hand-outs but, as the 60-minute show progresses, offers increasing sums until the big one: $3000 to one audience member.
But - and here's the catch - will their conscience allow them to take another person's life savings directly from them?
Those who accept the cash can keep it or return it at the end of the show. There's a deposit box at the theatre entrance and programmes include deposit envelopes.
The Money Conversation is a gamble for Juli, not least because she could lose a substantial sum, but because she needs a wad of cash to count out, roll around in and hand to audience members during the shows.
Nearly half almost vanished in the Netherlands when she handed over $2500 to a person who had lost their wallet that day and faced a financial crisis. It was not deposited at the end of the performance.
"I was kind of shocked because it hadn't happened before but, you know, I do offer the money to people and I thought, well, they had this financial stuff going on.
"I thought about it all night and decided to go to the theatre early and re-work the show because I still had one performance left and didn't have the cash I needed.
"When I got there, the money had been returned. I wondered if they always intended to return it or did the guilt get to them? There was a name and phone number but I decided not to call because I didn't want what they said to impact on the show."
Juli says some people take small amounts of money and run but, alternatively, some deposit extra money. It means she now has $5100 in the bank account.
"It has brought me so much more than money. The show got me a honeymoon in Holland because we were able to take it to a festival there and now it has brought me a trip to New Zealand and Australia."
But Juli admits her "money demons" still haunt her. Despite her success, she is not ready to give up her job as a professional fundraiser for the Dance Theatre Workshop.
The Money Conversation is based on financial discussions she had with her then-boyfriend.
"Chris and I were talking about getting married and what it would mean to combine our finances," she recalls. "Every time we had 'the money conversation', I'd get very angry and cranky. I even had hot flushes because it made me so uncomfortable.
"I need a 9-to-5 job and the fortnightly pay cheque; I'm just not comfortable without it.
"Chris, on the other hand, was more willing to take a risk and set up his own business and deal with the inconsistencies in cash flow."
Juli, who has a degree in dance and anthropology, says if she gets anxious about an issue, she turns it into a dance.
The Money Conversation grew to combine dance, comedy and theatre. It has been performed in New York and Holland, giving Juli the opportunity to observe differing attitudes towards money.
"In New York, when I asked people what certain sums of money meant to them, they'd say a new car or a new leather jacket or a new iPod. It was real consumer culture stuff. In Holland, audiences seemed more frugal.
"They would talk about spending on second-hand goods or making a donation to cancer research."
Juli admits to not knowing much about New Zealanders' financial fetishes but is a smidgen worried we are not big on audience participation.
"That could be a bit of a problem because the show very much depends on what the audience says about money.
"I took the whole question of what money means - because it is a big one for me - and decided to make it extremely public because I believe that if you have an issue, something that makes you anxious, chances are you are not alone.
"The show allows audiences to respond to their own issues because money is a universal concern. The biggest vehicle for that exploration is humour because it allows you to cross the boundaries of what's appropriate and what's not.
"The audience can laugh with me or laugh at me; either way, I just hope they respond."
