Human cannonball takes final flight in Hadi Shrine Circus
Daredevil will cap career with 6-story shot from a cannon
Courtesy David "Cannonball" Smith David "Cannonball" Smith soars over two Ferris wheels in a picture from 2004.
Evansville Courier & Press
Posted November 24, 2011
By Roger McBain
David "Cannonball" Smith plans to go out with one last bang this Sunday, concluding his high-caliber career in the city where he began performing as a professional daredevil.
The 69-year-old will blast out of a 36-foot-long cannon, soaring six stories over the floor in the Ford Center to land in a net, in the climax of Hadi Shrine Circus performances that begin today and run through Sunday.
The 69-year-old will blast out of a 36-foot-long cannon, soaring six stories over the floor in the Ford Center to land in a net, in the climax of Hadi Shrine Circus performances that begin today and run through Sunday.
David "Cannonball" Smith emerges from his custom cannon to soar six stories above theground.
contributed photo / David "Cannonball" Smith
He plans to quit going ballistic after this circus closes, grounding a career that's sent him sailing over Ferris wheels, a baseball scoreboard and outfield fence and the international border between the United States and Mexico.
Smith, a former math teacher who stepped out of the classroom to soar in the circus, dove, literally, into professional daredevilry in Evansville's Hadi Shrine Circus more than four decades ago.
He made his entrance as a sponge diver, leaping off a beam in the 42-foot-high Roberts Stadium, into a pile of foam mattresses collected for him locally after the giant air bag he'd shipped for the stunt failed to arrive.
It looked scary, but it was easy for Smith, a high school and college gymnast. "I dove straight down and then rotated onto my back."
Several years later Smith left sponge diving and trapeze work to launch his career in a higher caliber act — blasting out of stage cannons.read more:http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/nov/24/one-last-leap/
He plans to quit going ballistic after this circus closes, grounding a career that's sent him sailing over Ferris wheels, a baseball scoreboard and outfield fence and the international border between the United States and Mexico.
Smith, a former math teacher who stepped out of the classroom to soar in the circus, dove, literally, into professional daredevilry in Evansville's Hadi Shrine Circus more than four decades ago.
He made his entrance as a sponge diver, leaping off a beam in the 42-foot-high Roberts Stadium, into a pile of foam mattresses collected for him locally after the giant air bag he'd shipped for the stunt failed to arrive.
It looked scary, but it was easy for Smith, a high school and college gymnast. "I dove straight down and then rotated onto my back."
Several years later Smith left sponge diving and trapeze work to launch his career in a higher caliber act — blasting out of stage cannons.read more:http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/nov/24/one-last-leap/
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