Will human cannonball be a hit?

• David "The Bullet" Smith

David “The Bullet” Smith will be shot out of a cannon following the Beetles baseball game on Sunday, June 5. The first pitch is at 3:05 p.m.
• "The Bullet" in flight

David “The Bullet” Smith took flight out of the cannon. Smith will also be in Sunday’s Beetles parade down Broadway Street.

Talk about it

Beetles baseball fans will witness more than pop-flies soaring into the air this Sunday. They are going to be on hand for a death-defying feat as they watch a person catapulting into the skies.

David “The Bullet” Smith, a human cannonball, will perform his airborne antics at Knute Nelson Memorial Park following the contest between the Alexandria Beetles and the Thunder Bay Border Cats on Sunday, June 5. The first pitch is slated for 3:05 p.m.

Smith, who has been performing as a human cannonball for more than 14 years, will also appear in a parade on Broadway beginning at 1 p.m. prior to the game. The public is encouraged to attend both the parade and the cannon shot.

“The Bullet” has been shot out of a cannon more than 5,000 times in seven countries. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Today Show, in movies, commercials and in a documentary aired on the Discovery Channel.

Smith is a second-generation human cannonball, following in the airspace of his father before him.

“I’m going to bring the eighth cannon that my family built,” Smith said of the launching at the Beetles game.

Smith recently broke the record for the longest human cannonball shot at 194 feet, 3 inches at an exhibition in Italy. The previous record was set by his father, David Smith Sr.

Despite being a seasoned cannonball, Smith says that it still causes a few butterflies.

“There’s something nerve-wracking about being in a 35-foot cannon, I don’t care how many times you have done it,” he said.

Especially when he knows that when the shot goes off, he will go from zero to 50 miles per hour in one-fifth of a second, at 10 times the force of gravity. He is then in the air for about four seconds.

“In that time I have to spot my landing and do a somersault so I land on my back in the netting,” he explained. “I hit pretty violently there, bounce around a bit and hope everything went well.”

To those who have never witnessed a man being shot out of a cannon, Smith insists that there is a “huge wow factor” involved, and is excited to be a part of the Beetles’ game this Sunday.

“Make sure you come out to the show,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Tags: local news, news