If your idea of an entertaining Saturday-night activity is straining your eyes and getting itchy, you’re in luck. Providence clown Adam Gertsacov will debut his flea circus (one of about five that perform worldwide) at Brookline’s Puppet Showplace Theatre.

That’s right. Flea circus. You may have thought they went the route of bearded ladies and burlesque, but Gertsacov, who’s been touring the country for the past five years with his two miniature stars, Midge and Madge, claims "there’s kind of been a resurgence" of the Victorian-style side show.

The clown, who was educated at Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Clown College, has trained his two 1/36th-of-an-inch-wide performers — of the human-blood-sucking species Pulex irritans — to execute three stunts: pulling chariots in a miniature-chariot race; walking on a four-foot-long tightrope; and getting shot out of a cannon into a "flame of death." Lest the fleas not make it through alive, the ringmaster has a back-up supply of Midges and Madges, which tend to die every two years anyway.

You might be wondering how exactly spectators in a hundred-seat venue are to enjoy the sights, when the performers are smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

Well, says Gertsacov, "You can see quite clearly." The fleas’ stunts incorporate props that allow viewers to follow their actions. "As they pull chariots, you can see them from 25 feet away. And when the fleas walk on the tightrope wire, I balance a miniature chair and pole on it, and [the flea] moves the chair and pole along the wire."

Gertsacov says he expects a typical cross-generational crowd, which usually ranges from mesmerized kids to kitsch-loving, tattooed twentysomethings to nostalgia-driven seniors. And no matter their age, he notes, "by the end of the show, people generally get caught up in the fervor of the flea circus. It’s something from the past; it kind of went away because of television."

If attending a performance starring critters you’d normally want to squish between your fingers gives you the heebie-jeebies, the ringleader says there’s no need to squirm. "I feed them my blood," Gertsacov says frankly. "They need to be fed, so I prick my finger and put it in a petri dish. I don’t have to put them on me to feed ..."

Draining himself for his performers isn’t the clown’s only act of devotion toward his miniature circus act. Gertsacov stresses that he treats his performers with positive reinforcement; there’s none of that violent lion-whipping-style discipline to be found here. "It’s not like if they don’t do something, I beat them," he laughs.

Now that is a sight we would certainly pay to see.

The Acme Miniature Circus will perform Saturday, January 19, at 8 p.m., at the Puppet Showplace Theatre, 32 Station Street, in Brookline. Tickets are $10; call (617) 731-6400.