TLPP: Brain Tumor, Lady Gaga, Novel! w/ Barry Maher

Barry Maher spent 20 years as a corporate speaker and wrote six nonfiction books. Then he discovered he had a brain tumor the size of a baseball. He woke up from surgery with Lady Gaga playing on loop in his head and a complete, fully formed novel already there — vivid as a memory, not a dream. Two years later, that novel became The Great Dick and the Dysfunctional Demon, published at age 76. He's also in remission and can tell time again.

We talked about: the moment on an Asian cruise when he couldn't read a clock and didn't know why; why his wife figured out something was wrong before he did (he was putting his clothes on backwards); introducing a ship's captain on stage and then asking him what he did for a living 15 minutes later; the doctor's clock-drawing test and the nurse who wouldn't let him go to the bathroom alone; why a brain cancer diagnosis is like an impending hanging — it concentrates the mind; the novel that emerged from surgery (complete with open crypts, dark spells, sudden death, and the Ralph Lauren version of the Manson family); why The Great Gatsby and Moby Dick are the same story; and the Lady Gaga song that played on loop in his head for three straight days (it's "Always Remember Us This Way" from A Star Is Born — he was not a fan before, and he is definitely not one now).

Get the book → The Great Dick and the Dysfunctional Demon by Barry Maher https://amzn.to/4xqVD4y 

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 — Intro — who is Barry Maher?

0:24 — Six nonfiction books, 20 years of corporate speaking — and now a novel

1:18 — The speaking business: cold calling, articles, PR, and repeat clients

2:37 — Lou bombing at a Christmas party and waiting to get paid after

4:21 — The speaking escape hatch: "and the point of that was..."

5:41 — His first presentation: an hour of solid content, to a funeral home audience

6:50 — The cruise where he couldn't read a clock — and didn't know why

7:55 — His wife noticed something was wrong on the second cruise