old circus acts

[logankennedy15]

@13ullet13east because they'd die

[krystanow]

wow insane! what time period is this from?

[julioguappo]

Chocadoooo!

[coachgeo]

Possibly done like the human flying cannonball people. Spring pushes out the human; this case real, cannonball and the nose and smoke is light bit of pyrotechnics.

[amyntut]

@ 0:28 , that was the beginning believe it or not not of the death cage.

[chisaiinezumi]

WOW @ the human target.

[MarOmega]

Goes to show that even though the stuff I do is crazy and sometimes puts me in the hospital, we don't have to work nearly as hard these days to make a buck. You'll probably never see a canonball act like that again, unless you catch the episode of the Simpsons where Homer did it.

[wolfgangle]

Cannonball Richards is unforgotten. I love the man for his immense courage but to see how incredibly hard these fellows had to work to make a decent living makes me a lil sad.

[dbkblix]

what's that song at the beginning?

[dbkblix]

what is that song?

[breezeman199]

The trick is to put most of the explosive powder and charge in front of the cannonball rather then behind it as you normally would. This dramatically reduces it's velocity but actually makes an even louder, more dramatic noise. Still not easy by any means.

[kingofkards91]

But how can he resist the immense amount of heat and probably flaming powder coming from that?

[breezeman199]

That's a good point. Many of the old circus guys who did this were heavily padded for this reason. Occasionally guys would sustain serious, even fatal injuries from this. Houdini for instance was killed as a result of being punched in the abdomen. He was legendary for his boast that he could take any man's punch. The fellow depicted in this video is certainly a tough old bugger, i'll give him that.

[kingofkards91]

You're right about wearing padding but not about Houdini, he died from appendicitis he had before he was punched it just happend to surface around the time he was punched. That actually is a very common misconception. I still don't get how all the powder would be infront of the cannonball but it would still go forward and not self destruct the cannon.

[breezeman199]

Not ALL of the powder, MOST of it. Interesting about Houdini. Thanks.

[theMAKman]

lol @ 1:12-1:15

[bull22222]

that cannonball act was fucking incredible how can he take a cannon ball to the stomach thats crazy!!!!!!!!

[iluvjackie4eva]

wow lol id like to see him in the ufc

[angerismymiddlename]

They don't make 'em like they used to... Where are all those tough as nails guys now?

[naginililly]

wow what is he build of?

[angerismymiddlename]

OMG! Who was that guy? Hats off for him!

[nezpercenathan]

His name was Frank "cannonball" Richards.