“I had a wife and four kids and the roof was leaking.”
The PR firm Eisen then launched, Eisen & Associates, lasted 28
years, until he “retired” in 2010. Of course, he didn’t really retire.

Instead, he reinvented himself again — this time as something like
a spirit guide for people moving through post-retirement.

He started at nursing homes and retirement facilities, and then
broadened his reach to libraries, universities, synagogues and
churches. He has a whole slate of programs, many of which he
refers to as “this thing I do.”
“There’s this thing I do called ‘A Reporter’s Front-Row Seat to
History,’ where I talk about the people I’ve met, like Mother Teresa
and two popes, Joe Frazier, Jackie Gleason,” he said. “Then I’ve got
another talk called ‘New Year Equals New Job.’ I do a quiz show
called ‘Can You Top This?’ I do a thing called ‘I’m 80 — What Do
I Do Now?’ I do a thing called ‘Confessions of a Philadelphia Spin
Doctor,’ which is based on my book. I do ‘The Pope’s Jewish PR
Guy and Other Tales: How Ed Eisen Said No to the Mafia and
Lived.’ I do a thing called ‘From Caterpillar to Butterfly: How You,
Too, Can Change.’”
His most popular program these days is probably the one
about current events.

“Some of these people in these retirement homes are told, ‘You
don’t talk about politics. You don’t talk about religion. You don’t
talk about these controversial things.’”
That’s not Eisen’s style.

“I do a thing called ‘Sound Off,’ where we debate the big issues
in the news. For one hour we talk about Donald Trump and the
presidency and what it means for America. We talk about what it
means to be a Muslim. We talk about issues that are frowned upon
to talk about at the dinner table. It’s sort of like Anderson Cooper
and Bill O’Reilly combined. They just love it.”
Another much-loved program is the one he does for people
with Alzheimer’s and dementia, in which he plays music from the
’30s, ’40s and ’50s, and passes around an old Quaker oatmeal box
that’s filled with written prompts: “Can you remember the last
time you sat around a radio listening to it?” “Tell the story of how
you met your spouse.” “What was the happiest day of your life?”
“What would it take to make you very happy today?”
If workshop attendees can’t find an answer, Eisen — not
surprisingly — answers the questions himself.

All of Eisen’s activity these days is motivated by the same
desire: to enrich the lives of others.

“You’ve got to make yourself happy by making other people
happy,” he said. It’s an impulse he probably got from his mother.

“My mother was from Latvia. We were poor. But she would
have a stranger come into the house on the Sabbath every Friday
night. That was my mom’s way of giving back.”
He and his wife have passed the giving torch on to their kids:
Daughters Stacy and Gwen both work in the health care industry,
while son Seth recently wrote a play inspired by work he did as a
caretaker for an elderly man. (Eisen’s other son, Steve, died of
cancer at 33.)
“I’m having a ball, I really am,” Eisen says of his 18th — or is it
19th? — act. “People look at me, and they don’t believe that I’m 80.”
So is that the takeaway? Is that the point?
“The point,” said Eisen, “is that there’s always hope, and the sun
will come out tomorrow.” l
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