Human Cannonball lands with thud

by YankeeJim | April 26, 2011 at 02:26 am

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Training session for “human cannonballs”

Welcome gentlemen to the annual Human Cannonball Workshop. I hope you observed the rule, no eating after midnight. I notice that once again there are no women present in the class. No guts, no glory.

OK, first thing is you cannot be afraid of heights. We will test that by asking you to climb up an eight foot ladder to the tip of the cannon.

Next, you cannot be claustrophobic. We will test that by asking you to slip into the cannon chamber and slide into the breach. We will open the breach and ask you to step outside.

Then we will pack the gun with a black powder charge while you are changing into your human cannonball suit that resembles a pilot’s uniform that includes wearing a motor cycle helmet with chin strap. Later, you may customize the uniform and helmet with your own crazy colors.

Now, that the charge is loaded, who wants to be first to slide into the chamber?

What’s that? You don’t know how to land?

Right, excellent question.

First, do not land on your head and neck. Second, do a body roll. If you land on your head and neck, you will receive a course refund.

“Act goes awry, human cannonball dies

By Tom Watkins, CNN

April 25, 2011 5:24 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- A man who was taking part in a human cannonball show in Detling, England, was fatally injured Monday when the event failed to go off as planned, Kent police said.

The incident occurred in the afternoon during Scott May's Daredevil Stunt Show at the Kent County Showground, southeast of London, police said.

The British Press Association, citing police, said a safety net failed to engage.

A Kent Police spokesman declined to identify the man beyond saying he was in his 20s. Relatives of the man had been informed of the mishap, but his body had not been formally identified, a police spokesman said.

A statement on the Scott May website said all shows had been canceled "until further notice."

The stunt show, which has been touring since 1991, features monster trucks, two-wheel driving, fire stunts and car crashes.

David Smith Jr., who holds the Guinness Book of World Records entry for distance shot from a cannon (59.05 meters), said he had not before heard the terminology about a safety net's failure to engage, but said careful planning can make the shots less dangerous.

Smith, 33, whose father taught the stunt to his seven children, has been ejected from the barrel of a cannon some 5,000 times. It can be nerve-wracking, the record-holder said, but should not prove disastrous. "We've never had a cannon not fire or miss a net, and I mean we're talking tens of thousands of cannon shots combined between us all," he told CNN in a telephone interview.

After 14 years of taking his act across around the world, "I feel that my cannon shots are probably safer than me driving to the next show -- because I control my environment and I control my equipment."

Still, he acknowledged, "We've had some broken bones and stuff." He expressed condolences to the family of the man who died.”