Woz goes Strictly dancing
The US version of Strictly Come Dancing has secured Apple founder Steve Wozniak as a contestant. Dancing With The Stars is an ABC reality show which is part of a BBC Worldwide franchise, Dancing with the Stars, based on Strictly Come Dancing. For the benefit of anyone who can actually still afford to go out on a Saturday night, …
Are the Yanks going for a John Sergeant style controversy, I wonder? Or is Woz actually a skilled dancer and he's kept it quiet all these years?
Pats self on back.
For those who didn't spot it, it's the quickstep rather than the quick time.
My wife is a fan of SCD and we joked before the last series that John Sargent should be in it. We did not see this coming.
Maybe he wants to slim down a bit...he must have some spare time because it looks like contestants have to put in quite a few of hours training.
Can you imagine if it was the other Steve (ignoring the health issues) ......
Anon - as I hate to admit that I think SCD is a great programme even if I am not that much of a fan.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7877228.stm
We will all have to waltz our way through the two minutes' hate (sponsored by the Daily Mail).
Gates / Jobs (that would be a fun double act!) / Brin / Page...
Although finding their female counterparts would be harder - unless you looked at silicon peaks...
"Dancing With The Stars is an ABC reality show"
No, it isn't. It is a talent show based on a knockout format. I really wish journos would get the distinction - the only talent show of this nature that was also a reality show was Fame Academy which had Big Brother elements with the contestants living under the cameras 24/7.
X Factor, Pop Idol, American Idol, Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice, Britain's Got Talent - none of these are Reality Shows, they merely use the public vote knockout format that is also used by reality shows.
Whilst it is impossible to take issue with Woz's technical and inventive achievements, reading his autobiography, I was left with an unassailable impression that the man is a complete cock. Appearing on this show is therefore completely in character.
Also, were the Go-Go's really more successful than the Spice Girls and Destiny's Child?
I suspect that he's simply not famous enough in the real world to make an impression; the judges and the audience will be wondering who the heck he is. His influence can't be easily encapsulated in a single sentence ("he designed most of the hardware of Apple's early computers, the nitty-gritty stuff, and a fiendishly clever disc drive, although he didn't design the Mac's case or the icons etc"). It would be interesting to see Clive Sinclair on one of these programmes; from what I remember he is a passable dancer - and babe magnet - and also it would destroy some stereotypes about ginger-haired people.
As a fellow IT guy who dances Salsa I think its great he's doing it. Sure he may well be the next John Sergeant, we will have to wait and see on that. What matters most is the whole experience of having the balls to go out there and do something different and take a learning detour once in a while.
I'll get my coat, if you need me I'll be practising my steps in the server room while waiting for the blue bar to reach 100%.
What's with all the negativity around Woz? He seems a nice enough chap from what I've read I don't get it.
@SteveB: In the US over the last few years, 'reality show' has come to be an alias for 'unscripted show' (Ignoring, of course, the times when they actually use scripts). American Idol ( the US version of Pop Idol ), Big Brother, Survivor, et al. get tagged as a reality shows since we feel the need to put everything in a nice little box.
OK, I had to say it. And you know they could probably ask that other Steve (monkey boy). I understand that he's really good on his feet.
At first I presumed that casting Woz was an attempt by the producers to encourage people to stop referring to DWITS as "dimwits", but then I looked at the rest of the cast list and now I'm not so sure of their commitment.
"Steve Wozniak, minor computer designer and coder"
MINOR??? Jobs would be nothing without him. Oh wait, I think that was the whole article's point ;)
Anyway ... it is sad to see that Wozniak doesn't get enough credit, while the egomaniac jerk that is Steve Jobs gets all the credit.
If any of these shows had any element of reality to them nobody would watch. Let's face facts, reality is boring and I can see it everywhere. The basic motivation of folks on "reality TV" comes down to three things; money, ego, and advertising. The $64,000 question, is how does any reality show really differ from The $64,000 Question? If you want reality, go down to the park and watch a bunch of amateurs play softball and meet them at the pub for a pint afterward, if you want light entertainment with a course in Marketing 101 watch reality shows.
Paris because she knows how to play for reality.
Not in the US we don't. It's all toll-free (or whatever it costs for an SMS depending on your plan).
Plllbbbt. Or something.
I might actually have watched if it were Steve Jobs (again, barring health issues). I saw a documentary about Pixar last night, and it gave me new respect for the guy - he really did pull that company out of the ashes, and pumped pretty large sums of money, year after year, into a business which did something everyone agreed was cool but nobody'd figured out how to make money with. And he kept the company doing what it should despite lots of pressure from Disney to turn the outfit into a cash cow (ie, flat-out refusing to release Toy Story 2 as a shitty direct-to-video; being willing to ditch the whole deal if Disney insisted on making crap VHS versions of Pixar properties on their own).
Anyway. Where was I? Oh... Woz and Jobs at once would be cool. Right.
Shouldn't this be 'Monkey Dance' Ballmer and not Wozniak?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v#Nc4MzqBFxZE
mine's the Tuxedo.
