I can't conceive of what it's going to be like next week without the sight of Mark Cuban kicking up his heels on ABC's Dancing with the Stars. I was so disconsolate that Gawker Media videographer Richard Blakeley cooked up this montage to cheer me up. Let me tell you, Microsoft should be investing $240 million in this guy.
Kicked off of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, Mark Cuban reveals that he's lost 30 pounds in the course of preparing for and performing on the show. That points to his future career: fatblogging, like his good buddy Jason Calacanis, the wantrepreneur who's turned himself into the Richard Simmmons of the Internet.
Give billionaire Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban this much: At least he didn't faint during last night's Dancing with the Stars on ABC. It wasn't his best performance, but I'm betting he'll be safe during tonight's results show: The hypernerdy glasses he donned during an "I Dream of Jeannie"-inspired number played to his core audience of Valleywag readers.
Once again, Internet billionaire Mark Cuban is safe for one more week on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." This one I didn't get — but then again, I didn't really understand why Yahoo paid $5.7 billion for Broadcast.com, either.
Despite Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban's tenacity on Dancing With the Stars and his status as Silicon Valley demigod, he is not considered a "who's who" by Activision. He's been left out of the videogame publisher's Wii and PlayStation 2 titles based on the ABC show, which allows you to fulfill your most nerdly ballroom-dancing fantasies in the privacy of your own living room. But sadly, Cuban's hot-trotting shoes and puppeteer-spontaneous jazz-finger outbursts are not part of the package. Instead the adaptations stick you with the likes of Emmitt Smith and Joey Lawrence.
So far on Dancing with the Stars, Mark Cuban could do no wrong, as far as I was concerned. But last night's performance? A disaster all around. Slow and tepid dancing, and Cuban's expression, under caked-on makeup, looked like the Joker's frozen smile. Not even geek pride could get me to vote for this.
Flyover country may now know Mark Cuban better for his quick hips and jazz fingers on Dancing With the Stars, but the Web entrepreneur still likes to talk shop. A lot. He found an ear or two on Friday when AllThingsD's Walt Mossberg interviewed him at an otherwise obscure conference in Providence, Rhode Island. There, he explained that most everything you think is going well isn't really. Sorry. Some choice quotes after the jump.
Mark Cuban is safe for another week on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." From his grim expression, though, you'd think he was all but convinced he was off the show — note how it takes a few seconds for his win to register. Kym Johnson, his dancing partner, also seems shocked by the voters' choice.
From the tone of his blog post yesterday, I was prepared to see Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban fall down on the dance floor, writhing in pain as his career on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" went up in flame. Instead, the Web's ultimate good-time Charlie kept jazz-handing his way through the number, smiling all the while. Was he hopped up on hardcore pain medication endorphins or what? Still, a lesson for every startup founder: Set expectations low, and then exceed them.
If, like me, you've been rooting for filthy-rich dotcom entrepreneur Mark Cuban, then take heart: The grace-challenged terpsichorean has made it to the next round on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." But he may not have won new fans with his moment of exultation: Wearing an ubergay sleeveless shirt, he pumped his arms straight up in the air, exposing his hairy, sweaty armpits. Then again, maybe you're into that kind of thing.
A tragedy is brewing, folks. The Fort Worth Star-Something — apparently they have newspapers in cowtowns, who knew? — reports that Internet billionaire Mark Cuban risks getting voted off "Dancing with the Stars," due to the low scores assigned him by the judges. This is a clear example of the basest kind of antigeek prejudice. "It was like a bulldog chasing a squirrel," said one judge. Whatever! Who doesn't love bulldogs? And the worst thing: California, again, has been practically shut out of the vote, due to its Pacific timezone. The polls closed an hour ago. The Bay Area's nerd-boy hotbed, Cuban's natural constituency, left out again. So unfair! We'll have to watch tonight to see how this turns out.
Internet billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban takes the stage again on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." As I watched this, I had three thoughts: "Wow, that outfit is gay, even for 'Dancing with the Stars'"; "Mark Cuban is a really good bad dancer"; and "Those are not spirit fingers! These are spirit fingers!" Still, Cuban is the geekiest contestant on the show this season, so give him a little love, won't you?
The brash Mark Cuban, who sold his Internet-video company Broadcast.com to Yahoo at the peak of the '90s bubble, has found old-media fame on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." His star turn — which, of course, he promoted on his blog — was both charming and cheesy. Okay, he hardly pushed himself on the dance floor, but he looked suave in brown coattails, grinned the whole time, and exhibited a cunning use of jazz hands. Despite our misgivings, Cuban won our vote.
So much for old pals. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and billionaire founder of Broadcast.com, was Jason Calacanis's original backer at Weblogs Inc. And Cuban had agreed to show up at Calacanis's latest venture, the TechCrunch40 conference, as an expert judge. Cuban's still listed on the site, but he's a no-show at the conference, attendees say. Why? Apparently he's taping the ABC reality series "Dancing with the Stars." He's surely having a better time being critiqued for his soft-shoe technique than debating the merits of startups like Orgoo, Kerpoof, and ZocDoc. Once again, old media trumps new media.
