By Brian D. Smith

When the 146-year-old Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus gave its farewell performance in 2017, Skyler Miser cried — not only for the past, but for the future. Sitting in the audience with her parents in a Providence, Rhode Island, arena, the 13-year-old viewed acts ranging from jugglers to trained tigers as they took one last turn in the spotlight.

Her teary eyes perceived more than the demise of an iconic circus. “I thought I had just watched my dream fall apart in front of my face,” said the Peru, Indiana, native, now 21. “The ultimate dream for me was to perform for Ringling.”

And eventually, that’s precisely what happened. “The Greatest Show on Earth” reorganized, reimagined, and returned in September 2023, and Miser got her shot — literally. During a 62-city tour that ended in April 2025, she closed Ringling’s shows with a human cannonball act, launching at 65 mph and sailing 110 feet onto an airbag. She’s already signed for next season, which starts in January 2026.  

“I’m just so grateful that Ringling is back,” said Miser, the so-called Human Rocket who shoots from a cannon nicknamed the Ringling Rocket. “This is all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

After the 2017 Ringling shutdown, the notion of this Indiana girl catapulting from small-town obscurity to circus stardom seemed improbable, if not impossible. But maybe it was inevitable.

Though most parents would scoff at the classic kid’s fantasy of running away to join the circus, most parents haven’t made a living as human cannonballs. Miser’s dad and mom, Brian and Tina Miser, have blasted from a barrel thousands of times, even performing the stunt in tandem for Ringling from 2005 to 2010.

‘The Circus Capital of the World’

If working in the Ringling ring was her heart’s desire, she could hardly have found a better training ground than Peru, Indiana — a community of 11,000 known as the Circus Capital of the World. The big-top business came to town in 1884 when local livery stable owner Benjamin E. Wallace founded the creatively titled “Wallace and Co.’s Great World Menagerie, Grand International Mardi Gras, Highway Holiday Hidalgo and Alliance of Novelties.” Later renamed the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, it evolved into the second-most popular circus in America (behind Ringling) while providing early employment for legendary clown Emmett Kelly and Hoosier funnyman Richard Bernard “Red” Skelton.

Wallace sold his circus to French Lick millionaire Ed Ballard in 1913, but his Peru winter quarters continued to house animals and equipment for other circuses, including Ringling, through 1938. The sale of the property three years later seemingly severed Peru’s circus connection, especially when Ringling burned its surplus circus wagons and skipped town.

But in 1959, the city decided to capitalize on its heritage by staging its first circus festival, adding an amateur children’s circus a year later. Today, Circus City Days and the Peru Amateur Youth Circus take place annually during the third week of July, and the International Circus Hall of Fame, which features a museum of circus artifacts, encompasses five historic buildings once used as winter quarters.  

The youth circus provides more than a summer diversion for Miami County kids. Brian said it jump-started his professional circus career, teaching him a repertoire of skills such as high wire and flying trapeze. “I would not be doing this if it weren’t for the Peru circus,” he said.

His success doesn’t surprise Kathi Greene, executive secretary of Circus City Festival Inc., who spent 27 years as a trainer for youth circus participants, including the Misers. “Brian was fearless,” she said. “He would try anything.” Tina exemplified a different sort of excellence: “She was very strong but also very elegant in her performance. Tina paid attention to the little things.”

Their daughter spent years watching her parents and their colleagues ply their trade professionally, and it showed when she joined the youth circus. “Skyler was special in her performance,” said Greene, citing her professional posture. “Her legs were always straight, toes pointed. Her form was always picture-perfect. That doesn’t mean every child of a circus performer will become one themselves, but Skyler was like a sponge, soaking it all in.”

Carrying on the family tradition

Despite her aptitude, Miser’s parents never pushed her to do circus work. “That thought is always in the back of your head: ‘Wouldn’t it be great if she wanted to carry on the family tradition?’” said Tina. “But there was never a spoken expectation.” In fact, after her high school graduation, Miser almost found her way into a different kind of flying as she considered not only college but also the U.S. Air Force.  

However, the wild blue yonder took a back seat the day Brian received an email announcing the return of Ringling. With a human cannonball act in the plans, the circus asked Brian if he could provide a cannon and the training. He recommended his daughter for the job. 

Miser heard the thrilling news that afternoon. “I’d just gotten home from school, and he told me, ‘We need to sit down,’” she recalled. “I thought I was in trouble.”

She wasn’t, except with her preparedness. Miser had been shot out of a cannon exactly once in her life — when she was only 11. Her dad was building an 8-foot cannon for a Ringling clown from the United Kingdom, and after testing it with dummies, he sought a human projectile. “I asked her if she wanted to be the youngest person to be shot out of the smallest cannon,” Brian said, to which Miser eagerly replied, “Absolutely!”

Conditions were less than ideal, with snow on the ground and a gusty breeze that nearly proved hazardous. “A big wind came and blew the airbag away,” he recalled, “but luckily it happened before she shot.”

The rest of the test went better, with Miser flying 18 feet and doing a belly landing on the airbag. “She had perfect form,” said her father.

The coolest job on Earth

Of course, one junior cannon shot as a preteen doesn’t qualify a young lady for a full-time gig as a Ringling cannonball. But thanks to her high-altitude performances in Peru’s youth circus and her trampoline training at home, Brian believed his daughter had the right stuff for human rocketry. “She’s a really good aerialist and acrobat, and she also did the flying trapeze,” he noted, “so we had confidence in her.”

Cannon training initially frustrated Miser, who “was really questioning if this was the right thing for me. It took a couple of months, but I started getting more comfortable as I got more shots under my belt.”

She no longer questions her choice of profession, saying there’s “absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is where I was supposed to be. And lucky me, because this is the coolest job on Earth.”

It’s also one of the most dangerous. But Miser, who thus far has avoided serious injury, has a couple of advantages over the average wannabe cannonball. Her dad has designed and built every cannon she’s ever used, and her parents’ real-world experience gives her instant access to experts.

Not to mention veterans of nationally televised talent and talk shows. Brian — billing himself as The Human Fuse — wowed the judges on “America’s Got Talent” in 2019 by donning protective gear and getting set ablaze, then fired from a giant crossbow tended by Tina and Skyler. 

He and Tina appeared together on “Late Show with David Letterman” in 2006, and in 2009, Tina and a fellow female cannonball were booked on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”

Still, Miser doesn’t get complacent about her cannon before a performance. “I’m always checking it like a newborn baby,” she said. “I have to put my life in its hands.”

Her parents can attest to what happens when a stunt goes seriously awry. Tina once broke her shoulder in a bad landing, and Brian counts a total of 18 fractures, including five during a mishap in Japan after his cannon was imperceptibly damaged in shipping. “It shot me sideways, and I hit the edge of the airbag and bounced off,” he said. “But it worked out — I came back home to recuperate and met Tina.”

Even when Skyler’s forceful flight unfolds flawlessly, she feels the aftereffects. “There isn’t a single day I wake up that I’m not in pain,” said the 5-foot-3, 100-pound daredevil. “If it’s not my back, it’s my hip. And if it’s not that, it’s something else.” But at least her hearing hasn’t suffered. “I don’t hear a loud bang when I’m inside the cannon,” she said, perhaps because the explosion occurs outside the device.

Revamping Ringling

One of only two females in the world who perform a human cannonball act — her mom is the other — Miser represents a Ringling resurgence that seemed unlikely when the famous circus folded in 2017. A year earlier, Ringling owner Feld Entertainment had bowed to relentless protests and lawsuits from animal rights groups by retiring the circus’ 11 trained elephants. But that undercut ticket sales — a testament to the pachyderms’ popularity — and, coupled with the rising cost of rail travel, helped spur the decision
to close.

Yet Feld Entertainment, which also stages Disney on Ice and Monster Jam truck shows, wasn’t ready to end “The Greatest Show on Earth” — although the revamped version contains no wild animals or conventional clowns. “We had to sit down and rethink, ‘What do audiences want?’ as well as keep with the circus tradition,” explained Brandon Glass, touring public relations manager. “The show moves at the pace of TikTok. Everything is changing every 7 to 12 seconds.”

Miser’s act, which takes place at the grand finale of the two-hour show, exemplifies the new focus on superhuman feats and skills. It begins with her kneeling, then standing on the Ringling Rocket (her dad’s former “crossbow”) as it’s wheeled into the arena. She’s clad in what she affectionately calls her “supersuit” — a colorful bodysuit with white sides that covers everything but her head, hands, and feet. Long white gloves and red lace-up boots complete her work wardrobe.

A male and a female announcer trade lines designed to stoke the audience, such as “Please welcome Skyler and the Ringling Rocket!” and “Keep it going as Skyler prepares to fly!” Then comes rhythmic clapping, a 10-step countdown, and finally the command of “Fire!” as spotlights blanch the arena. The force propels Miser down the barrel and about 35 feet over the arena floor. She gracefully executes a swan dive that segues into a half-flip as her legs rotate above her head, and she smacks the airbag with fireworks shooting on both sides.

“It’s only 2 seconds, but it feels like 5 minutes to me,” said Miser. “I feel every single motion. I go from 0 to 65 miles an hour in less than half a second, and I watch the airbag the entire flight until the end. The best way to land is not completely flat on your back, but on your upper back and shoulders.”

Exhilarating memories

It’s been a season of exhilarating firsts for Miser, as when she initially tried on her custom-designed outfit. “I couldn’t believe I had my own Ringling Bros. costume!” she said. “I took hundreds and hundreds of pictures.”

She also gasped at the first sight of her image on a billboard. “It said Ringling Bros. circus was in town this weekend, and it had a picture of me flying out of the cannon.”

Then there was her first circus performance, which took place in the presence of her parents. “That show will forever live in my head. I started to cry, but it was happy tears.

I remember running up and giving them a big hug.”

Her first performance in Indiana — at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse in December 2023 — attracted hometown support. “I had at least 25 people at every show, and many of them watched me grow up in Peru.” (Miser and her parents will return to Indy this month for an explosive appearance at the Indiana State Fair.)

And of course, nothing can erase the memory of her first cannon flight at age 11. “I landed on an airbag and let out a little squeal. Then I screamed, ‘That was awesome!’” she said. “I still feel like that every single show.”