Consumerism has made American citizens more like robots rather than human beings, and one performance artist is out to prove it.

Amy Kilgard, a performer and professor at San Francisco State University, presented her show “Triskaidekaphobia: 13 Consumer Tragedies” Frday at the Marion Kleinau Theater by mocking the awkwardness and irrationality consumerism brings society. She portrayed 13 different characters through a series of skits, and the audience responded by laughing and approving of Kilgard’s exaggerated American capitalism portrayal.

Before the show began, shopping bags labeled 1 to 13 were placed in front of the stage. Each bag symbolized one of 13 consumer tragedies Kilgard enacted onstage during the skits. Throughout the performance, she turned each bag to its opposite side to reveal a new consumer tragedy she planned to portray. Kilgard said she interviewed people with retail experience for the show and found that American corporations make awkward, scripted interactions with customers more robotic and less human.

As Kilgard enacted “The Deal,” the eight consumer tragedy, she received Black Friday audience advice. One crowd tip was to miss Thanksgiving dinner to wait in line early outside of a retail store. She called on Felix Peralta, a sophomore from Chicago studying physical education, to give a helpful Black Friday shopping tip. He told her to plan her route of stores to visit in advance. Kilgard wrote the tips frantically as the crowd shouted more.

Kilgard’s interactions made it easier to be drawn into the experience, Peralta said.

“I thought (audience interaction) was pretty cool,” he said. “It’s definitely awesome to be engaged in the performance. I’m that kind of person who likes to be involved. It keeps me more focused.”

Another audience-participation element allowed patrons to pelt Kilgard with paper.

Kilgard told various consumerism tales during each skit, and the crowd threw paper at her as she poked her head and hands through an on-stage green target whenever an audience member grew tired of the situations she enacted.

Audience member Simone Biles, a senior from Country Club Hills studying theater, said the show related to one of her favorite hobbies — shopping. She said Kilgard’s over-the-top performance was hilarious and changed the way she viewed the passtime.

The show left her in laughter because it was relatable, but also humbling, Biles said.

“Honestly, (the show) struck a chord with me because I really love to shop, and so I didn’t really realize how many different ways we are being consumed with consumerism,” she said.

Biles said “iLand,” Kilgard’s fifth shopping bag skit, made her rethink whether her uncontrollable desires for Apple products was appropriate. In the skit, Kilgard pretended to be an obsessed Apple fan trying to find ways to fill her emotional needs with the next product.

Rebecca Walker, associate professor of speech communication, said the show made her reflect on her own consumer habits.

“We are sort of taught to buy things as an expression of our identity, or like Amy talks about, buying things as a way to fill a void for something that’s lacking in our life,” she said. “Consumption becomes one of the main ways that we’re told over and over by corporations and advertising campaigns that we can fix any sort of problem that we’re having.”