Skyler Miser helps bring Ringling Bros. back to DCU Center with a bang as the Human Rocket

For Skyler Miser, getting to be part of the new "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey: The Greatest Show On Earth" has been a blast. Literally.

Miser is the "Human Rocket."

In dramatic fashion every night, the 20-year-old Miser greets the audience as she elegantly stands on the rocket launch/cannon apparatus, then goes inside a capsule as the audience is led into a countdown before she is blasted out at 65 mph. Miser travels 120 feet in about three seconds before landing on an air bag. Then she gets up and walks to a platform to wave to the audience again.

"The flight is about three seconds. For me it feels like a minute. It really feels like slow motion to me," Miser said during a recent telephone interview.

A 'reimagined' circus

Speaking of time, almost exactly seven years since it was last at the DCU Center in April, 2017, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will be back with its "reimagined" show, "The Greatest Show On Earth," with showtimes 7 p.m. April 12; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. April 13; and noon and 4 p.m. April 14. The show is also at the Agganis Arena at Boston University from March 28-April 7.

"Share the laughter and awe-inspiring spirit of the circus and ignite your family’s spark of fun" declares one message on the DCU Center web site.

The circus had been a regular visitor to the DCU Center over the years, but Feld Entertainment Inc., parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, announced early in 2017 that the then 146-year-old touring circus would be shutting down. There had been increasing controversy over the use of animals in the live shows. At one time, elephants used to line-up outside the DCU Center when the circus was in town. There were no elephants when the circus came here in 2017, but there were 14 tigers, six camels, two snakes, horses and goats, and 16 poodles.

However, the new reimagined show was announced last year and debuted Sept. 29 in Bossier City, Louisiana with no animals or clowns but with 75 human performers from 18 countries in a multitude of acts.

Family Tradition

The human rocket or human cannonball is a legendary, fan-favorite circus act that has stood the test of time and winds of chance and is an integral part of the new "Greatest Show On Earth."

For Miser it was a bit of a blast from the past as her parents had been human rockets with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, and some of her earliest memories are of her father, Brian Miser, as the "Human Fuse" at the circus.

Miser's first time as a human rocket was at the age of 11. It was already in her DNA. Her father wanted a "test dummy" for a new piece of apparatus, "so of course I said, 'yes,'" she said.

Ringling Bros. approached Miser about being the human rocket for the new tour and now she's following in the family tradition. It probably didn't take much persuasion. "It's all I ever wanted to do," she said.

Her father is a self-taught human rocket who had developed several rocket launchers or cannons over the years from the family home base in Peru, Indiana. Miser said her parents joined Ringling Bros. in 2001.

"When my mother (Tina Miser) was pregnant she was my dad's trigger woman," Miser said. Later, "they both flew." Brian and Tina Miser made history as the only double-human cannonball couple in the world at the time. Brian Miser also became the first human to launch fully engulfed in flames.

Her father has now retired and her mother, while she still can do rocket launches, isn't part of the Ringling Bros. tour.

As for Skyler Miser, "For now I'm the baby in the rocket community," she said.

'There are not many jobs like this'

Brian Miser started training her on a trampoline when she was very young, teaching her body control and to how to develop proprioception, which is awareness of your body’s positioning as you’re flying through the air; a skill essential to the act. She is also trained on the flying trapeze, and the skills and techniques carry over between both disciplines.

She graduated from high school in Indiana and renewed her dedication to becoming the Human Rocket in earnest.

To be a successful and injury free rocket man or woman requires more than just waiting for the countdown to reach zero. And you don't land on your feet, physically or metaphorically.

Miser does mathematical calculations involving the temperature of the rocket and the landing distance. In the capsule "I squeeze muscles tight in." For the flight she does a "a half turn watching the airbag until I land on the bag on my back."

Asked what those three seconds — or one minute of slow motion — feel like, she said "It's really hard to describe. There is nothing like it in the world. The closest is like a roller coaster." However, her take-off is at a force of 7 g (about the same as a F-16 fighter) whereas a roller coaster is about 4 to 5 g, she said. "So even a roller coaster can't compare."

Once the air bag is deflated, Miser stands up and prepares to face the audience. "It's pretty hard to walk on the air bag," she said.

"My favorite part about performing in general is the audience. Seeing the inspiration on their faces and getting to talk to them is probably the most gratifying part," she said.

While she has a number of launches to her name now, it's good to feel a little nervous before each flight, she said. "Otherwise you'd forget about something. Every little thing can break the act."

Being a human rocket can be dangerous, and the circus world has true stories of performers who were badly injured or even died in the act, usually from bad falls after missing the air bag or safety netting.

Miser hasn't had any serious accidents, "knock on wood. My parents have. My dad self-built seven rockets. He had a lot of trials. So I'm lucky, I had he and my mom train me," she said.

"The worse case is you miss the air bag completely — undershooting, overshooting. That's where all of the math is involved. That's why I double check, triple check everything. No matter how many times you check it you have to acknowledge that it is a machine and machines can fail."

The current tour is scheduled to run for two years, so there are many more rocket launches in Miser's immediate future.

"It's been great so far. The audience reaction has been amazing. There are not many jobs like this," Miser said.

She can actually envision herself being the Human Rocket for quite a few orbits around the sun.

"I could see myself possibly going as long as my parents. My dad has been a professional performer 40 years." Miser could do that "(until I'm) 60, same age as my dad," she said.

"It's all I know. The circus is such an exciting life style. I consider myself very lucky that I get to travel the country and see America."

'Never-before-seen stunts'

Rather than having a Ringmaster as it did in the past, the new "Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey: The Greatest Show On Earth" has Lauren Irving, Alex Stickels and Jan Damm joining forces as Aria, Stix and Nick Nack who serve as "the soul, rhythm, and funny bone of the show, guiding audiences through an interactive and immersive experience," according to the show's description.   A "music-filled journey is bursting with catchy rhythms, beats, songs, and laughter that will have audiences clapping, tapping, singing and laughing along."

As Aria, Stix, and Nick Nack serve as show guides, there are "never-before-seen stunts," acrobatic displays, and comedic acts. These include: The Triangular Highwire, led by The Lopez Family, sixth-generation circus artists hailing from Mexico and Chile; The Double Wheel of Destiny with "four acrobatic daredevils performing challenging back-and-forth leaps and somersaults atop two simultaneously spinning apparatuses suspended 30 feet above the ground and moving at incredibly high speeds"; a "high-adrenaline extreme sports act" featuring a group of BMX riders, a trial bike, and an extreme unicycle performing stunts on a trampoline box constructed in the center of a take-off and landing ramp; Criss-Cross Trapeze with The Flying Caceres; acrobats with acts ranging from Teeterboard, Hand-to-Hand Balancing, Hoop Diving, and Foot Juggling; Wesley Williams, the One Wheel Wonder, a Guinness World Record-setting performer; and much more.

Closing the show with a bang is Skyler Miser.

She calls it a dream come true.

“Ringling is such an iconic American tradition and now I’m making my mark," she said.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey: The Greatest Show On Earth

When: 7 p.m. April 12; 11 a.m., 3 and 7 p.m. April 13; and noon and 4 p.m. April 14

Where: DCU Center, 50 Foster St., Worcester

How much: $18 to $125+ depending on performance. Ticketmaster.com

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Skyler Miser brings Ringling Bros. back to DCU as the Human Rocket