Thinking of joining the circus? Here's how that works

AUSTIN, Texas — It's filling out forms that the human cannonball hates most.

"They ask for your occupation," Tina Miser, 35, says with a sigh. "You don't want to just write 'entertainer' because that sounds a little sketchy."

So she writes "human cannonball," knowing the person reading the form probably won't believe it. But that is her job with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. She's done it for six years.

In these tough economic times, the idea of being shot 90 feet out of a cannon sounds like a viable career choice. Let's face it: The circus isn't that far from the business world. In both, workers can expect to walk tightropes, juggle and occasionally pull a rabbit out of a hat.

These days, circus jobs come with vacations, medical insurance and 401(k) plans. So why not run off and join the circus? Miser's glad she did, although her parents made her go to college first.

So is Ryan Henning, who tends elephants, and Alex Ramon, the ringmaster — or Zingmaster, as they call him in this show; he performs magic and is master of ceremonies for the circus.

"It really is the greatest show on Earth," Ramon says. "I would not do it if I didn't love it."

Miser grew up in Peru, Ind., which calls itself the Circus Capital of the World because circus troupes used to winter there. She says she wanted to become a circus aerialist right out of high school.

"My parents said, 'You are not allowed to run away and join the circus until you graduate from college,'" Miser says. So she went to Ball State, graduated, served briefly in the Air Force Reserve, then came home for the summer and wound up volunteering for the local amateur circus, where she met Brian Miser, the man who would become her husband.

He had a great pickup line: "I'm building a cannon. Why don't you shoot me out of it?"

Long story short, they both wound up in the cannonball business. She started out shooting him out of the cannon. Now he shoots her out of it, except that right now they're both getting shot out because the circus's other human cannonball is out of commission "from cannon overuse," Tina Miser says.

Yes, it's dangerous. The Misers sometimes get bumps and bruises, and they have to stay in shape so they can land without injury.

"There are only 10 human cannonballs in the world," Tina Miser says. "If it was easy, everybody would do it."