Missouri man David Smith has a job that many people consider to be crazy.

For 300 shows a year, he is shot up out of a cannon, across about 200 feet of air and into a net across the way.

As the barrel of the cannon goes up into the air, the 66-year-old sits on the edge and is then fired off with a g-force of more than 9. (That’s nine times the acceleration of gravity.)

“I’m in there, and when I go off, I’m suddenly somewhere else,” he said.

He’s never broken a bone during the 9,000 shots he’s been fired on in the past 34 years. And he’s even won the world record for distance traveled out of the cannon — in Owatonna when he went 201 feet, 4 inches.

Though he has performed at the Steele County Fair in previous summers, this year the man, known as “The Human Cannonball,” is performing at the Freeborn County Fair. His shows are at 4 and 8 p.m. daily this week in the midway. The cannon sits in front of the Ferris wheel.

What keeps him going?

“I like the response of the people,” Smith said. “It’s something I like and it’s something I can give them.”

During the fair this year, he will be shot out of the cannon, up over the Ferris wheel and into a net on the other side.

As soon as he is fired out of the cannon, he said, he has several tasks to perform, the most important of which includes spotting the net.

“I never look around and wonder about the scenery,” he said.

He also has to make sure to land properly on his back so as to not injure himself.

He’s had a couple close calls but never broken a bone, he said.

People usually enjoy his show so much they come back again and again, Smith said.

“The same people will come back every time,” he said.

Though he was a master’s degree in education and worked as a teacher for a short while, he decided that wasn’t for him when he got a chance to be a catcher for a flying trapeze artist. The hobby took off from there.

Now he’s been performing for 34 years.

He designed his own cannon, which he said is one of God’s gifts to him.

“I’m a pretty good engineer,” he said.

Smith has 11 children, six of who have also performed as human cannonballs.

People tell him all the time that he’s crazy. He said he “can’t argue with that.” He’s raised seven kids on the road, allowing them to wake up every day to something new in their backyard.

He is from Bolivar in southwest Missouri.