Bubble wrap takes on a whole new meaning when Jim Jackson gets his hands on some soapy water.

For two decades, Jackson, a longtime clown known as Art Guffaw, has ensconced kids in bubbles on New Year’s Eve.

It’s not a punishment or a way to finally get some peace and quiet; it’s for pure play, joy and celebration of the turning of the calendar.

“Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!” Art Guffaw’s Big Bubble Circus has three hour-long performances on Wednesday at the MAT.

In between Jackson’s opening and ending bits are aerial acrobats Katarina Chaskelis and Amanda Lukasavige on trapeze and hoop.

“It’s a great party celebration for the end of the year and new year,” said MAT co-founder Jackson. “And it’s great for all ages. The little ones love the giant bubbles.”

The ringmaster of bubbles, whose clowning career has seen him perform in circus rings, on street corners and stages like New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and The Kennedy Center, first fell in love with mime.

After four years of mime classes at college, where he earned a degree in psychology, Jackson veered off the well-paved path toward becoming a psychologist after encountering a spectacular circus during a college summer in Europe.

“I went to that show 10 times in a row,” he said. “I tried to sneak in one night and got caught, and they said if I can’t afford it, I can clean horse stalls and pick up trash. By the end of that, I was hooked. You just never know. I’m sure a lot of artists talk about that, how they were on a more traditional career path.”

It’s been half a century since his first paid job as a clown at a charity fundraiser, which came after someone saw him perform with his mime troupe and offered him the gig. He figured out some makeup, polished up a few magic tricks, and a clown was born.

A few months later, he got a contract with the Royal Lichtenstein Quarter-Ring Sidewalk Circus, a three-person ensemble billed as the world’s smallest circus. The trio criss-crossed the U.S. in a big UPS van, playing colleges and couch surfing as they went.

“We’d sometimes be booked by the student council, and sometimes we’d just show up and set up in the middle of campus,” Jackson said. “We’d put on a show at lunchtime and pass the hat.”

After a year, he joined a traditional tent show with hundreds of performers and animals, and for two years, traveled to a different town every day for two shows a day. That was followed by a stint with Chipperfield’s Circus, a touring British circus.

And 25 years ago, he and his wife, Birgitta De Pree, opened the Manitou Art Theatre, now Millibo Art Theatre, where clowning remains a staple on their roster.

“It’s like buggy and horse carriages — it’s a throwback to an older time,” Jackson said. “People gathering in the dark to watch strangers on stage — that’s a throwback. It fulfills the human need to gather and experience things without a screen in front of us or separating us. Clown magnifies that. Clown breaks that fourth wall, and the audience, whether in a circus or on a street corner or theater, they don’t know if they’ll become part of the show.”

If you go

What: “Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!” Art Guffaw’s Big Bubble Circus

When: 11 a.m., 2 and 4 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Millibo Art Theatre, 1626 S. Tejon St.

Price: $15, $50 family four-pack; 719-465-6321, themat.org