For Barry Soper, an unlikely friendship with Rufus Hannah led to an incredible journey. The former La Jolla resident tells Hannah’s tale, from a shaky childhood to starring as the victim in the notorious “Bumfights” reality films to picking up his life and becoming a humanitarian. Soper chronicles these events in the memoir “A Bum Deal,” and the two will speak at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 at the David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre. “I hope that it could inspire other people to change,” Hannah said. “Most people have the potential to change. You just have to want to. Also, you have to have somebody like Barry that is willing to take a chance and go the distance through the good and the bad.” Today, most might not recognize the clean-cut Hannah as the former “Rufus the Stunt Bum,” a toothless, wild-eyed homeless stuntman with crazy hair from the infamous “Bumfights” videos shot in the beginning of last decade. Hannah currently lives with his wife in La Mesa and speaks on behalf of the homeless at schools and before legislators — a far cry from being pushed in a shopping cart down the stairs behind a grocery store for beer money 10 years ago. “It seemed like it went fast, but it has been a journey,” Hannah said. Soper and Hannah met in 2000 at an apartment complex Soper owned in San Carlos. It wasn’t friendship at first sight, however. Hannah emerged from a dumpster to see Soper confronting another homeless person. “When he [Hannah] jumped out, the way he looked, it was like an animal coming out at me. It was frightening,” Soper said. The next day, Soper offered Hannah and Hannah’s friend Donnie Brennan work fixing fences around the complex. After eight weeks, work ran out and Hannah moved to La Mesa. “All of a sudden, the bum aspect had dissipated and I got to know them as human beings,” Soper said. With East County as a backdrop, Hannah embarked on a painful episode of his life. Living behind a grocery store in La Mesa and making between $10 and $15 per day, Hannah was approached by high school student Ryen McPherson and asked if he wanted to make $5. “I asked him what I had to do,” Hannah said. “He [McPherson) pointed behind the building and there was a ramp there where they had milk crates wrapped in plastic. He said ‘I want you to run head first into those.’ So I ran into them, knocked some of them over.” For the next three years, McPherson would regularly look for Hannah to film alcohol-fueled stunts for the “Bumfights” films he was producing and selling on the Internet. The cash promises were always delivered to Hannah, but so was the physical pain from performing stunts that included a perilous skateboard ride down the 125 Freeway and running headfirst into a metal storage container. “When I ran into that metal container, the next thing I knew, all I could see was white light,” Hannah said. “I got up the next morning and I thought I broke my neck. It was probably a week before I could even move.” Taking on the persona of “Rufus the Stunt Bum,” Hannah continued performing dangerous stunts for McPherson and entertained an occasional cheering section. He hit rock bottom when he punched Brennan on command in a fast food parking lot, giving his friend a broken leg. “It just got crazier and crazier,” Hannah said. A few days after that punch — and almost three years since he first met them — Soper saw Hannah and Brennan at a gas station in El Cajon. With no knowledge of “Bumfights,” Soper immediately noticed the phrase tattooed on Brennan’s forehead — Hannah has it tattooed on his knuckles — and asked what was going on. “He explained what happened and I told him I was going to get the best civil attorney to represent you guys,” Soper said. “Nobody does this to a human being.” McPherson heard about the potential charges and fled to Las Vegas with Hannah and Brennan, where they were sequestered in an apartment during the day and performing more stunts at night. Hannah called Soper during that time and explained he needed help. Soper obliged by going to Las Vegas and risking his own life to get Hannah and Brennan out of the apartment and back to San Diego. “I promised the guys, ‘After this, you’re safe.’ There’s no more videotaping. No more Ryen McPherson. It’s done,” Soper said. Hannah was freed from the videotaping, but he was battling an addiction to alcohol. At the urging of Soper, Hannah entered a 28-day inpatient rehab program at the VA Hospital in La Jolla. Hannah completed the program and continued the road to recovery at Veterans Village of San Diego, then known as Vietnam Veterans of San Diego. After that, Hannah spent 17 months in an education program in Escondido, and Soper stood by his side, helping with whatever Hannah needed. “When people read the story, hopefully they can get out of it that you can help somebody and it can turn around,” Soper said. “That’s what rings out with Rufus’ story.” Today, Hannah still has vision and equilibrium issues and still bears the tattoos on his knuckles as painful reminders of “Bumfights.” He has spoken about homelessness at high schools and colleges around the country, and last month he wrote a letter to U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-M.d.) urging him to support the Hate Crimes Against the Homeless Statistics Act of 2009 — a letter that was read into the record. Soper came up with the idea to write “A Bum Deal” at the urging of late “60 Minutes” host Ed Bradley, who Soper met with in 2006 while Bradley was doing a story on the “Bumfights” saga. Bradley told Soper he was the one who needed to tell the story, which begins with Hannah’s childhood. “Then Rufus and I started working on it and I started writing and working on it and making sure every detail was accurate,” Soper said. In September, “A Bum Deal” was published. The 238-page memoir of Hannah’s life is told in first person from Hannah’s perspective. The memoir has been featured nationally in the New York Post, CNN and the TV show “Inside Edition.”