KEY POINTS:
New York performing artist Sara Juli opens her Auckland season of The Money Conversation at the Aotea Centre tonight.
The hour-long performance explores people's relationship with money and sees Juli give away her own personal life savings to audience members.
We caught up with her to find out just what brought on this unusual theatre concept.
So, what is the premise of The Money Conversation and how did it come about?
The premise is about reassessing my relationship to money while asking audience members to question their own attitudes to such a taboo topic. The idea came about two years ago when my now husband and I began the money conversation. We spoke about combining our finances, earning money, saving money etc. Every time we spoke about it we argued, and I had tremendous anxiety. That's when I knew I needed to make a performance about it.
You give away your savings during the show - do people ever try and give it back to you afterwards?
Some people don't accept the money in the first place, which I find interesting and meaningful. Some give it back after the show, some take it and some even pull money out of their own pockets, which totally fascinates me. You can never anticipate how individual people will respond as it's such a personal matter. It's motivated a lot by how they react to my performance.
What's the strangest thing anyone has done with the money you gave them?
I don't actually know what people do with the money although one person did tell me he was planning to set up a high-interest savings account with the cash and would split the earnings with me in 50 years....[laughs]
You've toured the world with the show. Just how much money have you given away to date?
I haven't counted lately as I find it painful. I have lost a bit of my life savings thus far, but I hope to recover some of my losses here in Auckland, New Zealand.
Since beginning this experiment, what have you learnt about people and money?
Everyone has a messed-up relationship with money. It doesn't matter if you make heaps of it or none at all - we all could use a way to dialogue better about money and have it be less of a taboo topic.
What has been the most surprising outcome of this experiment?
If people take the money I'm losing not only my life savings. I'm also losing a very successful show. If people don't take the money, then this show may resonate less. Either way I'm screwed!
