A Connecticut resident is trying to upend stereotypes about aging well and he is putting himself out there to do it.
So, yes, go ahead and call Garrison Leykam a “geezer” because he has already embraced it and is using the word for humor and to show that older people have and do live full lives, have stories worth telling, and are technology-curious enough to keep learning.
Leykam, a West Hartford resident, is doing this with a website and new show on Youtube called Geezers, Gadgets, and Gizmos. Through these mediums, Leykam offers gentle thoughts about aging, and now reviews of products seniors might be interested in trying out.
“I wanted to flip the perception into something much more positive,” Leykam said. “Seniors really embrace technology, especially if it will help improve the quality of their lives.”
“These are the golden years, we do need to embrace them,” he said.
He calls himself the head geezer, and means it in a way to show getting older can be full of resilience, wit, and being “a little eccentric, in the best possible way.”
Among the goals of the new show, on which he is partnering with the production company of videographer Alyson Grisham, is to help seniors cut through “the maze” of technology and other products that have come out, and find ones that are most useful, he said.
To do this, he said, products are tested, until he finds the one that works best in a niche, in his opinion. No money is taken from any manufacturer, he said, so objectivity is preserved.
The point is not to push a product, but only to offer his experience and thoughts, after he has tested its use, Leykam said. The videos are done with humor, using himself as an example. “We are not slanted toward one manufacturer or another,” he said.
A Youtube user commented on one video, “Humorous and informative take on a tool that can help us roll smoothly as we get along (in years, and down the road). Well done.”
About the use of humor, Leykam, who said he has worked as a stand up comic, said it is, “because I have gotten older the most effective way is to have a sense of humor about it.”
“Life has changed — what is the fun side of that?” he said.
In an episode, Leykam, standing in a driveway, surveys it, and with self-deprecating humor, notes it used to be an expanse of blacktop he could cross while lugging groceries and toddler at the same time.
“Now it’s Everest,” he says in the video, noting he now needs a “water break” just to get to the mailbox. Then ensues his thoughts on a product that can be used to help yourself along when walking becomes difficult.
Leykam, who has a background in corporate leadership, is an author, business coach, experienced motorcycle rider, and entrepreneur, said Grisham “understands how to translate what we want to accomplish.”
Grisham said while they both have television experience, it differed, and that is a benefit.
“Every script I get excited to read the next one,” Grisham said. “I feel like we are always bouncing ideas off each other.”
She said, for example, on a recent shoot, she brought her drone to use, and “some things will come to mind as I am editing.”
Leykam noted, “I am totally open to Alyson telling me ‘that take was not your best, you can do better,’ and that because she is such a hard worker, he knows to be at the shoot with “my lines” prepared.
Leykam, noting his goal is to enhance lives and help people understand technology, not to sell or push products, said, “we want to cut through the maze and do the heavy lifting for seniors.”