# Human Cannonball **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 31, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-cannonball/417619 "2007-08-31T14:40:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Kavanagh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@John\_Kavanagh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kavanagh)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-cannonball/417619/1 "2007-08-31T14:40:09Z")
On the thread about [Human Cannonballs](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_069.html) Cecil, peace be unto him, mentions the first such projectile, a “Young woman named Zazel”. Actually it was a young man who at that point in his career posed as a woman becasue his mentor, The Great Farini, thought it made better theatre. “Farini” was a Canadian, an early tightrope walker and the first person, I think, to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls. The story of both of them (including their real names, which I forget) is in the book “The Great Farini”, a good and interesting read. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-cannonball/417619/2 "2007-08-31T17:44:02Z")
Welcome to the boards **John Kavanagh**. Thanks for the info, that adds to the column. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-cannonball/417619/3 "2013-08-20T18:16:14Z")
Bumped, since Cecil’s column is back on the SD front page. I wonder about the first sentence of the last paragraph: “Historian A.H. Coxe says of 50 human cannonballs more than 30 have been killed, mostly by falling outside the net.” Obviously there have been more than 50 human cannonballs over the years, and equally obviously, I presume, Coxe wasn’t saying that there’s a more than 3-in-5 risk of death for such stunts. Did Cecil mean to say, “of 50 human cannonballs _who have been in an accident or hurt during a performance_, more than 30 have been killed…”? ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-cannonball/417619/4 "2013-08-20T20:18:01Z")
I’m not sure how accurate the info in the OP is. According to [this page](http://travsd.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/zazel-the-human-cannonball-rosa-richter/) Zazel was a woman called Rosa Richter (1862-1922). > [@](#): > > Born in England, she was already an acrobat and tightrope walker in her teenage years. In 1877, she was first shot out of a cannon and thrown in the air 100 feet by the Great Farini, the inventor of the device. > > In 1880, she was brought to the U.S. by P.T. Barnum and headline for a few years with his circus. Zazel’s act was so popular that many people stole it, not just Farini’s cannonball device, but Zazel’s name as well. Rosa herself stopped doing the act after a few years and went back to walking a tightrope. Ironically, it was a high wire fall that eventually broke her back and caused her retirement in 1891. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-cannonball/417619/5 "2013-08-21T12:52:43Z")
I see Cecil is cited in the Wikipedia article on “human cannonballs.” So that’s where Wiki gets the quote about the death toll. This is sort of like the snake eating its own tail at this point. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-cannonball/417619/6 "2013-08-21T13:39:32Z")
I’d pay five bucks to see a snake cannonball.