RIP Andrew Koenig

By now you have heard of the untimely passing of Andrew Koenig, 41, in Vancouver, B.C. It’s still hard to comprehend.

I guess you could say I was a fan of Andrew’s, but only for about the past year. It wasn’t until recently that I knew he had been on the ‘80s-era sit-com Growing Pains playing “Boner” Stabone. To me, he was Andrew Koenig, video producer and aspiring director. Perhaps I’ll explain.

Andrew was the video producer for the popular podcast Never Not Funny, hosted by his brother-in-law, stand-up comic Jimmy Pardo. I had interviewed Jimmy a number of times for appearances in Cincinnati and Minneapolis. Last year I started listening to NNF. Via his web-site Monkey Go Lucky, Andrew posted a video version of the podcast. Sometimes he would be on microphone, other times, he would add comments in the background. He had a quick wit, and easy going manner.

Knowing Jimmy is married to Danielle Koenig, I quickly deduced that Andrew was the son of Star Trek’s Walter Koenig (ensign Chekov). What’s odd about that is that Walter Koenig was the only Star Trek cast member I ever met. It was at the only Star Trek convention I ever attended. Undersatnd, I’m a huge fan, but one convention was good enough for me, cool as it was. Walter Koenig was the featured speaker, and I remember him laughing at the question posed by another fan. “Is Chekov going to scream in the next film too?” This was between Wrath of Kahn and The Search for Spock.

Those sorts of things didn’t come up much on NNF. Once, when Danielle was on the podcast, Jimmy noted with a laugh that she and her brother had probably had their fill of any kind of conventions. I think they had been talking about Comic-Con in San Diego.

As for Growing Pains, again, a mention here or there. It was Andrew that told the most hilarious story though. While at a diner in Tuscon, Arizona, a waitress rushed out from the kitchen, frantically looking around.

“What’s going on? Andrew asked her.

“I heard Bono was out here.”

“No,” Andrew said. “You heard Boner was out here.”

Along the way I friend requested him on Facebook, and he accepted. At the time he was in the midst of drumming up interest in a film he hoped to make called New Wave. I had just started posting my “Lost New Wave Greats” on Facebook and Twitter, and soon after, Andrew borrowed the idea to help promote New Wave. I kidded him about stealing my idea, and at first he thought I was serious. “The more the merrier,” he said. Of course I agreed and pointed out that I was in fact flattered. His film by the way looks very cool, and sooo ‘80s in the best ways.

That’s how I knew Andrew Koenig. A guy, about my age, who loved new wave music (still!), science fiction and comedy. It was only a footnote to me that he was on Growing Pains.

After he disappeared, it became obvious how many lives he had touched and in so many ways. Growing Pains fans of course, but Never Not Funny fans, those connected to the causes he cared about, his friends in Canada, California and around the world---all desperate to find him.

I still can’t over the image of his poor mother and father at that picnic table in Vancouver’s Stanley Park, breaking the news that Andrew had taken his own life. Terribly upsetting.

As the elder Koenig indicated, at the very least, this tragedy can hopefully help others. It sounds like an empty platitude and perhaps even trite, but you have to believe it. Life is just too precious.