AUDIO: HUMAN CANNONBALL, DEAD AT 88
Hugo Zacchini, who wowed crowds as a human cannonball, has died. For nearly seven decades, members of the Zacchini family performed a human cannonball act. More than a dozen Zacchinis, men and women spanning two generations, performed the stunt throughout the world for carnivals and circuses including Ringling Bros. Launched out of a prop cannon, they would soar through he air and land in a net. (* Poor Annette!) How the Zacchinis shot a human being from a cannon remains a family secret. Hugo, the last of the Zacchini cannonballs, died in his Tampa home on October 30 at the age of 88. His last jump was in 1991 at Plant City’s Strawberry Festival at the age of 63.
* Nothing says “Strawberry Festival” like shooting a guy out of a cannon.
* His epitaph: “It was a blast!”
* No, I’m NOT going to say he was a man of high caliber. Because he was known to have a short fuse.
* Mr. Zacchini is lucky he didn’t end up a vegetable.
* Though they say he did suffer from shell shock.
* There were more than a dozen Zacchinis, but they would always say “Hugo first.”
* They should shoot him right into the open coffin for old time’s sake.
* The trick remains a family secret? Wait, for it to be secret don’t you have to have people who want to know?
* Take KFC’s eleven herbs and spices. That’s a secret because people want to cook their chicken that way.
* But who the hell wants to send a family member through the air as a human cannonball?
* Unless you don’t like them.
CLIP: Mr. Zacchini describes how he does it, from a 2013 documentary “Zacchini: Human Cannon Ball”.
