Rocket Man

Human cannonball David Smith built his career on getting fired

David “The Bullet” Smith was born to cannonball. The third of nine kids, he spent his childhood with his famous father, David “Cannonball” Smith Sr., travelling with the circus and learning to ply the family trade. While two of his siblings opted to become professional projectiles, he planned to follow a less airborne path: law school. But when his father sustained a back injury on the job and asked David, age 19, to step in, The Bullet took his first exhilarating shot before a crowd. Ten years and hundreds of death-defying releases later (he was recently shot over the Grand Canyon at 80 kilometres per hour after being “fired” by Donald Trump), Smith Jr. continues to show off his aptitude for moving up in the world.

How do people react when you tell them what you do for a living?

Some think it’s the greatest thing in the world; others think I’m nuts. It depends on how I present it. I’m a little more discreet about what I do if I’m trying to get life insurance.

What’s your training regimen?

I spent a lot of years on the flying trapeze and as a high diver. Your body’s got to be able to take the hit coming out of that cannon. If you make a mistake it can all be over. Pardon the pun, but you’ve only got one shot at it.

Your dad holds the Guinness World Record for cannonball distance, at 201 feet. Do you have any plans to top him?

As long as it’s in the family, I’m fine with it. My record is 184 feet, but if somebody outside of our family came up with a 202-footer, I’d go for it the next day.

Can you describe a launch?

My wife usually raises the cannon barrel, begins the countdown and does the firing. But I set the cannon myself. Because God forbid something happens and somebody else did the calculations—how would they live with themselves? Sitting on the end of that barrel can be pretty nerve-racking.

You have two kids, and twins on the way—do you want them to get into the family business?

I’ll encourage them in any direction they want, but if they choose to be cannonballs, God bless ’em—I’ll do everything I can to help.

David “The Bullet” Smith shoots out of a cannon twice daily during the Canadian National Exhibition, Aug. 18 to Sept. 4.

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