Daughter follows parents' flight path to circus as the Ringling Bros. human cannonball
Some kids have no intention of following their parents into the family business, but Skyler Miser thought it was worth a shot.
The daughter of two performers with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Miser said she recalls longingly watching her parents, Brian and Tina, do their famous human-cannonball act.
“I remember sitting in my stroller watching my parents fly around the arena. That’s all I wanted to do,” the 20-year-old said.
“When Ringling did its last show in 2017, I remember crying and crying, thinking I’d never be able to perform in a Ringling show.”
Amid waning attendance, high-operating costs and animal-rights protests, Ringling packed up the big top in May 2017 and closed indefinitely.
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When Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey announced that the show was being revamped with a new format, Skyler said she felt a sense of relief.
“I had just graduated high school and I was thinking about what I wanted to do with my life − go to college or the military,” she said. “Thank God Ringling came back!”
After a six-year hiatus, Ringling returned last year to tour "The Greatest Show On Earth,” a reimagined extravaganza with spectacular stunts, awe-inspiring acrobatics, amazing aerial acts and more.
Columbus audiences can enjoy the excitement and entertainment when the circus comes to town this weekend at the Schottenstein Center.
Show times are 7 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets start at $20, available at ticketmaster.com.
The show’s revival in September 2023 marked Skyler’s official debut as “The Human Rocket” with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, but her story really begins before she was even born.
Growing up in Peru, Indiana − known as the “Circus Capital of the World” − Tina Miser attended a circus school as a child and performed with the town’s youth circus.
“When I wanted to run away and join the circus, my parents said, ‘Absolutely not,'” so I went to college and got a degree,” said Tina, 48.
“I ended up meeting my husband at that time, who was working as a human cannonball. That was kind of his pickup line: ‘Wanna shoot me out of a cannon?’ Next thing you know, I was begging to be shot from the cannon as well!”
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Tina made her first “flight” in 1999 and now has about 6,000 shots under her belt, in addition to doing high falls and aerial performances with Ringling. In the early 2000s, she and husband Brian made history as the only human-cannonball couple in a circus.
When Skyler came along, it was natural for the Misers to take her with them to work, where there was a nursery and a school to bring normality to their daughter’s extraordinary upbringing. But it wasn’t long before Skyler’s first time experiencing the roar of the crowd.
“Ringling used to do a preshow, about a five-minute act. My parents would do the high fall. I was 2 at the time and I just …, “ Skyler began before Tina interjected with, “She just went out and looked cute!”
However, Skyler was more than a cute kid who made the audience go, “Aww!” The circus was in her blood. “She really took to it. I kind of had an inkling that she would be some kind of performer,” Tina said.
In addition to receiving training by her dad, Skyler attended the same circus school that Tina had and made her first nonprofessional flight as a preteen.
“I was 11 years old. My dad made an 8-foot-long minicannon and asked if I wanted to be his test dummy. I said 'Yes!'” Skyler said, adding that she “only” flew about 18 feet.
Her first professional performance at 13 was doing aerial silks, but she never forgot the exhilarating feeling that came from rocketing through the air.
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Now flying about 110 feet − a distance Tina compared to about three school buses − Skyler said she still gets that feeling during each flight.
“The flight is so fast to everybody else, but to us it feels like the longest thing. Every millisecond, we’re thinking the entire time; it feels like slow motion,” she said.
“There are lots of things we are thinking about. When we come out, the first thing is we spot the airbag. Having good proprioception − awareness of where your body is in the air – can really help.”
Tina echoed Skyler’s description.
“Time slows down. As I’m coming out and my eyes are on the airbag, I can feel my body’s positioning. It’s very intense for one second. The more you do it, the more your senses come alive during a flight,” she said.
To understand how fast Skyler travels during her act, consider the fastest rollercoaster in the world. With one g of force equaling 22 miles per hour, the Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi exerts a maximum g-force of 4.8 g, according to the Roller Coaster DataBase. Skyler’s flights go about 7 g.
“There’s nothing like it in the world. The fastest rollercoaster in the world can’t compare with the trill and adrenaline you get with being shot from a cannon,” she said.
The cannon used in Skyler’s act holds a special place in all of the Misers’ hearts because all three of them have flown out of it.
“It’s been featured in Ringling for four separate tours. It was a double cannon before it was mine, so my parents shot out of it two at a time,” Skyler said.
“(Ringling) wanted to keep the traditional aspect of the cannon but with a new, modern twist.”
They’ve performed in aerial acts together, but mother and daughter have yet to do a flight in tandem. However, they have worked as a different kind of cannonball couple.
“For a long time, Skyler was my trigger woman; she was firing me. When she began learning, I became her trigger woman. We’ve been really fortunate being in the circus because we spend a lot of time together,” Tina said.
When asked how she feels about the amount of time she spends with her parents, Skyler laughed and gave an answer that sounded like what many young people would say.
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“I work with them, travel with them, live with them. You really cannot get away from them,” she said jokingly. “Until something happens. Then I call my mom.”
Despite a mother’s instinctive protectiveness, Tina has no qualms about Skyler taking up the mantle as “The Human Rocket.”
“I wanted her to have a well-rounded childhood and be informed if this was what she wanted to do. We researched colleges and looked at the Air Force, when she said this was what she wanted,” she said.
“I do this for a living. I knew the dangers and made sure that Skyler knew. I felt like she made an informed choice. I can’t blame her − this is the greatest job on earth and I’m happy for her.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mother, daughter perform as human cannonballs in Ringling Bros. circus
