1 00:00:11,867 --> 00:00:13,751 My name is Caine, and I am 9 years old. 2 00:00:14,121 --> 00:00:18,222 My arcade is named Caine's Arcade. It's open on weekends only. 3 00:00:18,621 --> 00:00:21,187 And, it's really cheap. 4 00:00:21,541 --> 00:00:24,769 Caine does not pass by an arcade without stopping in. 5 00:00:24,769 --> 00:00:28,486 He loves tickets, playing games. He loves prizes. 6 00:00:28,486 --> 00:00:32,441 So it was only natural for him to build his own arcade. 7 00:00:33,057 --> 00:00:35,157 He loves to see how things are built. 8 00:00:35,588 --> 00:00:38,546 He takes his toys apart to see how they work. 9 00:00:38,807 --> 00:00:41,475 He can't put them back together, but he takes them apart. 10 00:00:41,737 --> 00:00:44,267 Caine spent summer vacation coming to work with me. 11 00:00:44,329 --> 00:00:46,637 We sell auto parts in East LA. 12 00:00:49,329 --> 00:00:52,654 My dad has a lot of boxes back there. We ship parts out. 13 00:00:52,654 --> 00:00:56,121 So I cut them up and make my arcade games out of it. 14 00:00:56,121 --> 00:01:02,686 My first game I made is a basketball hoop I got at Shakey's Pizza... and it's really cool. 15 00:01:02,686 --> 00:01:08,069 He taped it onto a box, and he offered people chances to play for a nickel. 16 00:01:08,069 --> 00:01:12,759 He started with that little game, and little by little it got fancier and fancier. 17 00:01:12,775 --> 00:01:16,721 And eventually it took over the whole store. 18 00:01:16,721 --> 00:01:17,974 I met Caine randomly. 19 00:01:18,267 --> 00:01:23,942 I had to get a door handle for my '96 Corolla, so I pulled into this used auto part store. 20 00:01:23,973 --> 00:01:29,780 And I just came across this elaborate cardboard arcade. 21 00:01:31,180 --> 00:01:32,932 I asked him how much it was to play. 22 00:01:32,963 --> 00:01:36,567 He was like "for $1 you get 4 turns. 23 00:01:36,567 --> 00:01:38,285 But for $2 you get a fun pass." 24 00:01:38,977 --> 00:01:42,587 Well, how many turns do you get with a fun pass? You get 500 turns with a fun pass. 25 00:01:42,587 --> 00:01:43,984 I got a fun pass. 26 00:01:44,722 --> 00:01:51,453 I made this fun pass expire in one month. And you get 500 plays on any of these games. 27 00:01:51,453 --> 00:01:53,088 It is a great deal! 28 00:01:53,088 --> 00:01:58,620 I started making my office. It has a speaker, so on the other side I can talk through. 29 00:01:58,620 --> 00:02:03,522 I got tokens, my business card, fun passes, and prizes. 30 00:02:03,522 --> 00:02:08,104 My first prizes I used my own toys, like the cars - my own toys. 31 00:02:08,104 --> 00:02:11,704 I used to like Hot Wheels when I was little. 32 00:02:11,704 --> 00:02:16,489 I work from the back office, so it kept him out of my hair all summer. 33 00:02:16,489 --> 00:02:19,604 He would work on the arcade, i would work on eBay. 34 00:02:19,773 --> 00:02:25,362 My next game I built was a soccer game. First of all, it didn't get no goalies. 35 00:02:25,362 --> 00:02:31,263 People said it was too easy, so I bought army goalies, and there are blockers. 36 00:02:31,263 --> 00:02:33,548 I tell them, "is it easy now?" 37 00:02:33,548 --> 00:02:37,890 It's pretty hard, so you get two tickets if you make in here. 38 00:02:37,890 --> 00:02:43,567 I give it a 4 stars. Hard game, challenging game. 4 stars. 39 00:02:44,290 --> 00:02:48,775 One day, Caine tells me, "Dad, I want to buy a claw machine." 40 00:02:48,775 --> 00:02:50,207 I say, "why don't you just build it?" 41 00:02:50,207 --> 00:02:57,122 So he got an S hook and put a piece of yarn on it, and then put a little track on top of the box. 42 00:02:57,183 --> 00:03:04,295 And then I said, "What the heck? He figured out how to make a claw machine with a string and a hook." 43 00:03:04,295 --> 00:03:10,699 Here are some sunglasses. These are the glass I like the most - star sunglasses. 44 00:03:11,330 --> 00:03:15,538 He buy calculators to put on every arcade game. I ask, "what's that for?" 45 00:03:15,538 --> 00:03:19,961 The calculators right here are for security to see if it's a real fun pass or not. 46 00:03:19,961 --> 00:03:22,634 On the back, the fun pass has a security number. 47 00:03:22,634 --> 00:03:27,353 So when you go here you turn it around and put the pin number in it. 48 00:03:27,353 --> 00:03:31,328 And press the check mark button and the big number comes out. 49 00:03:31,328 --> 00:03:34,429 That's how you know it's a real fun pass! 50 00:03:39,890 --> 00:03:45,018 My dad started the business in 1955. We have used auto parts. 51 00:03:45,018 --> 00:03:50,901 Most of our business has gone online because we really don't get the walk-up traffic like we used to. 52 00:03:50,901 --> 00:03:55,329 So Caine's chances of getting one customer is pretty hard. 53 00:03:55,837 --> 00:04:01,570 Caine is always waiting in front, sitting on his little chair and trying to convince people to play. 54 00:04:02,216 --> 00:04:04,115 But not too much luck. 55 00:04:04,115 --> 00:04:06,349 Caine's Arcade grand opening! 56 00:04:07,426 --> 00:04:13,003 But he never gets discouraged. He is always sweeping up and dusting off the game. Waiting for customers. 57 00:04:14,557 --> 00:04:18,514 He only wears his shirt on Saturdays and Sundays when he comes open up his arcade. 58 00:04:18,514 --> 00:04:23,906 And he is really proud of his shirt because he thought it up and he designed it. 59 00:04:25,121 --> 00:04:33,384 When Caine got back to school from vacation, he kept telling everybody that he got an arcade, and nobody believed him. 60 00:04:33,384 --> 00:04:39,000 So he won't wear his shirt to school because he's afraid that kids might tease him about it. 61 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:44,395 He told them, "hey I got my arcade!" But they're like, "yeah, yeah sure." 62 00:04:50,334 --> 00:04:57,435 So one day, my secretary comes running into the office, "George, you'll never believe it! Somebody is playing in Caine's Arcade." 63 00:04:57,435 --> 00:05:02,581 And I go, "no way!" I was looking through the security camera and watching him. 64 00:05:02,704 --> 00:05:05,929 I'm playing miniature soccer, miniature basketball. 65 00:05:05,929 --> 00:05:13,511 And then, when you score a point, he would crawl into the box and he pulls out these little tickets out on the side of the cardboard. 66 00:05:14,188 --> 00:05:17,584 Like a real arcade, game tickets come from the bottom. 67 00:05:17,584 --> 00:05:21,684 And I was like, "this kid is a genius." 68 00:05:21,684 --> 00:05:29,850 Nirvan came back one day when Caine wasn't here and told me, "you mind if I make a short film about Caine's Arcade?" 69 00:05:29,850 --> 00:05:36,100 And I said, "well, actually, it's kind of a little joke around here, because you are his only customer." 70 00:05:36,100 --> 00:05:39,141 I was blown away. Caine has only sold one fun pass? 71 00:05:39,617 --> 00:05:42,035 Like the fun pass is an awesome deal. 72 00:05:42,035 --> 00:05:45,168 So Nirvan says, "well, what if I could get him a couple of customers?" 73 00:05:45,168 --> 00:05:50,394 I said, "that would make his day. If you could get him one customer, he would be happy. 74 00:05:50,394 --> 00:05:54,923 And at that point, we hashed a plan to invite everybody in LA to come play at Caine's Arcade. 75 00:05:54,923 --> 00:05:59,363 The idea was to do a surprise flashmob of Caine's Arcade on Sunday afternoon. 76 00:05:59,363 --> 00:06:07,846 I was thinking, "who is gonna come down to a junk yard on Sunday afternoon in East LA? Who's really gonna show up?" 77 00:06:07,846 --> 00:06:16,096 So then I made a little facebook event which a friend posted on HiddenLA which has over 230,000 fans, and all of a sudden it just started going viral. 78 00:06:16,096 --> 00:06:22,079 Nirvan put it on the internet, and all of a sudden, within an hour, we had NBC news here. 79 00:06:22,079 --> 00:06:26,812 Then it hit the front page of reddit, which is like being on the front page of the internet. 80 00:06:26,812 --> 00:06:33,947 I started reading the comments. "I wish I could be there - I live in New York. I wish i could be there - I live in Europe." And then I go, "wow!" 81 00:06:33,947 --> 00:06:36,713 It was getting big. 82 00:06:37,682 --> 00:06:43,528 The plan is I am going to take Caine to Shakey's Pizza. We are going to play some arcade games. 83 00:06:43,528 --> 00:06:48,264 We are going to eat lunch, while Nirvan sets up a big surprise party. 84 00:06:48,264 --> 00:06:54,185 Caine has no idea what we're doing, and when we get back, he is going to have the biggest surprise of his life. 85 00:06:54,185 --> 00:07:00,951 And the idea is to get as many people as we can to come out to Caine's Arcade, and just make his day. 86 00:07:07,552 --> 00:07:11,029 Caine is dying to have one customer show up to his arcade. 87 00:07:11,029 --> 00:07:15,419 So Caine is going to be the most surprised little boy in the whole wide world. 88 00:07:16,019 --> 00:07:18,116 Hey, we're ready. 89 00:07:21,624 --> 00:07:26,151 In about a minute, he is going to ride here. 90 00:07:26,151 --> 00:07:29,131 Hey Caine, can we go home early today? We had no customers. 91 00:07:29,177 --> 00:07:29,819 No. 92 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:30,630 No? 93 00:07:31,107 --> 00:07:33,103 Come on, Dad's tired! 94 00:07:33,103 --> 00:07:34,422 No can do! No can do? 95 00:07:41,438 --> 00:07:43,353 We're back Caine. 96 00:07:49,569 --> 00:07:54,935 Wow! What's going on over here? Haha. Huh? 97 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,685 [ cheering ] 98 00:08:01,685 --> 00:08:04,359 We finally got some customers here. 99 00:08:05,052 --> 00:08:09,238 [ cheering ] 100 00:08:13,699 --> 00:08:21,703 WE CAME TO PLAY. 101 00:08:21,720 --> 00:08:22,728 [ cheering ] 102 00:08:22,990 --> 00:08:24,644 Alright everybody, this is Caine. 103 00:08:24,722 --> 00:08:26,772 Hi Caine! [ cheering ] 104 00:08:26,787 --> 00:08:33,340 Caine, this is everybody. All these people came to play your arcade. Did you know they were coming? 105 00:08:33,524 --> 00:08:34,232 No. 106 00:08:35,461 --> 00:08:37,241 Are you ready to run your arcade? 107 00:08:37,241 --> 00:08:37,993 Yeah. 108 00:08:38,224 --> 00:08:39,852 Alright, what did you guys come here to do? 109 00:08:39,852 --> 00:08:41,769 WE CAME TO PLAY! 110 00:08:41,769 --> 00:08:43,703 Good. Welcome to Caine's Arcade. 111 00:08:43,703 --> 00:08:44,803 [ song ] 112 00:08:44,803 --> 00:08:46,586 Well the "C" could be for Cardboard 113 00:08:46,586 --> 00:08:48,485 And the "A" could be for Arcade 114 00:08:48,485 --> 00:08:50,419 But the "A" could also be for Auto Parts 115 00:08:50,419 --> 00:08:52,671 Cause in his Pop's shop's where it's made 116 00:08:52,671 --> 00:08:54,471 And the "I"'s gotta be for imagination 117 00:08:54,471 --> 00:08:56,889 Of which this kid's got a lot 118 00:08:56,889 --> 00:08:58,735 And the "N" oughta be for Noggin' 119 00:08:58,735 --> 00:09:01,472 Where the idea first got thought... 120 00:09:01,472 --> 00:09:03,624 But then the "E" (Oh yes the E!) 121 00:09:03,624 --> 00:09:05,919 Oh yes the "E" (Oh yes the E!) 122 00:09:05,919 --> 00:09:08,937 Well the "E"'s gotta be for Everybody 123 00:09:08,937 --> 00:09:10,452 (That's you and me!) 124 00:09:10,452 --> 00:09:12,653 Cause Everybody is who's invited 125 00:09:12,653 --> 00:09:14,570 To come on down and play 126 00:09:14,570 --> 00:09:16,772 If you've got the pluck to try your luck 127 00:09:16,772 --> 00:09:19,370 Come on down to Caine's Arcade 128 00:09:19,370 --> 00:09:21,486 Oh Caine's Arcade (Caine's Arcade!) 129 00:09:21,486 --> 00:09:23,870 Oh Caine's Arcade (Caine's Arcade!) 130 00:09:23,870 --> 00:09:28,638 It's the best cardboard arcade ever been made (Ever made!) 131 00:09:28,638 --> 00:09:30,086 So grab yourself a fun pass 132 00:09:30,086 --> 00:09:32,753 And y'all come on down and play 133 00:09:32,753 --> 00:09:34,605 If you've got the pluck to try your luck 134 00:09:34,605 --> 00:09:36,388 Come on down to Caine's Arcade 135 00:09:44,157 --> 00:09:47,966 [ cheering ] 136 00:10:07,945 --> 00:10:11,091 First of all, I want to know how you got all of these people. 137 00:10:11,091 --> 00:10:15,405 Are those your friends? 138 00:10:15,405 --> 00:10:24,056 So when I came back, I was like, "is this real life or was I just dreaming?" 139 00:10:24,056 --> 00:10:27,907 So I came out and there were real people in real life. 140 00:10:27,907 --> 00:10:32,282 Like they're really playing the games. 141 00:10:36,605 --> 00:10:42,696 I saw a lot of people, and I was like, "I don't know." It's probably a little parade around somewhere. 142 00:10:42,696 --> 00:10:51,489 And they were all like that... when i was right here. So I thought they were cheering for me, and they were. 143 00:10:51,489 --> 00:10:53,915 And I was proud.