WEBVTT 00:00:11.867 --> 00:00:13.751 My name is Caine, and I am 9 years old. 00:00:14.121 --> 00:00:18.222 My arcade is named Caine's Arcade. It's open on weekends only. 00:00:18.621 --> 00:00:21.187 And, it's really cheap. 00:00:21.541 --> 00:00:24.769 Caine does not pass by an arcade without stopping in. 00:00:24.769 --> 00:00:28.486 He loves tickets, playing games. He loves prizes. 00:00:28.486 --> 00:00:32.441 So it was only natural for him to build his own arcade. 00:00:33.057 --> 00:00:35.157 He loves to see how things are built. 00:00:35.588 --> 00:00:38.546 He takes his toys apart to see how they work. 00:00:38.807 --> 00:00:41.475 He can't put them back together, but he takes them apart. 00:00:41.737 --> 00:00:44.267 Caine spent summer vacation coming to work with me. 00:00:44.329 --> 00:00:46.637 We sell auto parts in East LA. 00:00:49.329 --> 00:00:52.654 My dad has a lot of boxes back there. We ship parts out. 00:00:52.654 --> 00:00:56.121 So I cut them up and make my arcade games out of it. 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. 00:01:02.686 --> 00:01:08.069 He taped it onto a box, and he offered people chances to play for a nickel. 00:01:08.069 --> 00:01:12.759 He started with that little game, and little by little it got fancier and fancier. 00:01:12.775 --> 00:01:16.721 And eventually it took over the whole store. 00:01:16.721 --> 00:01:17.974 I met Caine randomly. 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. 00:01:23.973 --> 00:01:29.780 And I just came across this elaborate cardboard arcade. 00:01:31.180 --> 00:01:32.932 I asked him how much it was to play. 00:01:32.963 --> 00:01:36.567 He was like "for $1 you get 4 turns. 00:01:36.567 --> 00:01:38.285 But for $2 you get a fun pass." 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. 00:01:42.587 --> 00:01:43.984 I got a fun pass. 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. 00:01:51.453 --> 00:01:53.088 It is a great deal! 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. 00:01:58.620 --> 00:02:03.522 I got tokens, my business card, fun passes, and prizes. 00:02:03.522 --> 00:02:08.104 My first prizes I used my own toys, like the cars - my own toys. 00:02:08.104 --> 00:02:11.704 I used to like Hot Wheels when I was little. 00:02:11.704 --> 00:02:16.489 I work from the back office, so it kept him out of my hair all summer. 00:02:16.489 --> 00:02:19.604 He would work on the arcade, i would work on eBay. 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. 00:02:25.362 --> 00:02:31.263 People said it was too easy, so I bought army goalies, and there are blockers. 00:02:31.263 --> 00:02:33.548 I tell them, "is it easy now?" 00:02:33.548 --> 00:02:37.890 It's pretty hard, so you get two tickets if you make in here. 00:02:37.890 --> 00:02:43.567 I give it a 4 stars. Hard game, challenging game. 4 stars. 00:02:44.290 --> 00:02:48.775 One day, Caine tells me, "Dad, I want to buy a claw machine." 00:02:48.775 --> 00:02:50.207 I say, "why don't you just build it?" 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. 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." 00:03:04.295 --> 00:03:10.699 Here are some sunglasses. These are the glass I like the most - star sunglasses. 00:03:11.330 --> 00:03:15.538 He buy calculators to put on every arcade game. I ask, "what's that for?" 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. 00:03:19.961 --> 00:03:22.634 On the back, the fun pass has a security number. 00:03:22.634 --> 00:03:27.353 So when you go here you turn it around and put the pin number in it. 00:03:27.353 --> 00:03:31.328 And press the check mark button and the big number comes out. 00:03:31.328 --> 00:03:34.429 That's how you know it's a real fun pass! 00:03:39.890 --> 00:03:45.018 My dad started the business in 1955. We have used auto parts. 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. 00:03:50.901 --> 00:03:55.329 So Caine's chances of getting one customer is pretty hard. 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. 00:04:02.216 --> 00:04:04.115 But not too much luck. 00:04:04.115 --> 00:04:06.349 Caine's Arcade grand opening! 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. 00:04:14.557 --> 00:04:18.514 He only wears his shirt on Saturdays and Sundays when he comes open up his arcade. 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. 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. 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. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:44.395 He told them, "hey I got my arcade!" But they're like, "yeah, yeah sure." 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." 00:04:57.435 --> 00:05:02.581 And I go, "no way!" I was looking through the security camera and watching him. 00:05:02.704 --> 00:05:05.929 I'm playing miniature soccer, miniature basketball. 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. 00:05:14.188 --> 00:05:17.584 Like a real arcade, game tickets come from the bottom. 00:05:17.584 --> 00:05:21.684 And I was like, "this kid is a genius." 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?" 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." 00:05:36.100 --> 00:05:39.141 I was blown away. Caine has only sold one fun pass? 00:05:39.617 --> 00:05:42.035 Like the fun pass is an awesome deal. 00:05:42.035 --> 00:05:45.168 So Nirvan says, "well, what if I could get him a couple of customers?" 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. 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. 00:05:54.923 --> 00:05:59.363 The idea was to do a surprise flashmob of Caine's Arcade on Sunday afternoon. 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?" 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. 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. 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. 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!" 00:06:33.947 --> 00:06:36.713 It was getting big. 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. 00:06:43.528 --> 00:06:48.264 We are going to eat lunch, while Nirvan sets up a big surprise party. 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. 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. 00:07:07.552 --> 00:07:11.029 Caine is dying to have one customer show up to his arcade. 00:07:11.029 --> 00:07:15.419 So Caine is going to be the most surprised little boy in the whole wide world. 00:07:16.019 --> 00:07:18.116 Hey, we're ready. 00:07:21.624 --> 00:07:26.151 In about a minute, he is going to ride here. 00:07:26.151 --> 00:07:29.131 Hey Caine, can we go home early today? We had no customers. 00:07:29.177 --> 00:07:29.819 No. 00:07:29.880 --> 00:07:30.630 No? 00:07:31.107 --> 00:07:33.103 Come on, Dad's tired! 00:07:33.103 --> 00:07:34.422 No can do! No can do? 00:07:41.438 --> 00:07:43.353 We're back Caine. 00:07:49.569 --> 00:07:54.935 Wow! What's going on over here? Haha. Huh? 00:07:57.520 --> 00:08:01.685 [ cheering ] 00:08:01.685 --> 00:08:04.359 We finally got some customers here. 00:08:05.052 --> 00:08:09.238 [ cheering ] 00:08:13.699 --> 00:08:21.703 WE CAME TO PLAY. 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:22.728 [ cheering ] 00:08:22.990 --> 00:08:24.644 Alright everybody, this is Caine. 00:08:24.722 --> 00:08:26.772 Hi Caine! [ cheering ] 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? 00:08:33.524 --> 00:08:34.232 No. 00:08:35.461 --> 00:08:37.241 Are you ready to run your arcade? 00:08:37.241 --> 00:08:37.993 Yeah. 00:08:38.224 --> 00:08:39.852 Alright, what did you guys come here to do? 00:08:39.852 --> 00:08:41.769 WE CAME TO PLAY! 00:08:41.769 --> 00:08:43.703 Good. Welcome to Caine's Arcade. 00:08:43.703 --> 00:08:44.803 [ song ] 00:08:44.803 --> 00:08:46.586 Well the "C" could be for Cardboard 00:08:46.586 --> 00:08:48.485 And the "A" could be for Arcade 00:08:48.485 --> 00:08:50.419 But the "A" could also be for Auto Parts 00:08:50.419 --> 00:08:52.671 Cause in his Pop's shop's where it's made 00:08:52.671 --> 00:08:54.471 And the "I"'s gotta be for imagination 00:08:54.471 --> 00:08:56.889 Of which this kid's got a lot 00:08:56.889 --> 00:08:58.735 And the "N" oughta be for Noggin' 00:08:58.735 --> 00:09:01.472 Where the idea first got thought... 00:09:01.472 --> 00:09:03.624 But then the "E" (Oh yes the E!) 00:09:03.624 --> 00:09:05.919 Oh yes the "E" (Oh yes the E!) 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:08.937 Well the "E"'s gotta be for Everybody 00:09:08.937 --> 00:09:10.452 (That's you and me!) 00:09:10.452 --> 00:09:12.653 Cause Everybody is who's invited 00:09:12.653 --> 00:09:14.570 To come on down and play 00:09:14.570 --> 00:09:16.772 If you've got the pluck to try your luck 00:09:16.772 --> 00:09:19.370 Come on down to Caine's Arcade 00:09:19.370 --> 00:09:21.486 Oh Caine's Arcade (Caine's Arcade!) 00:09:21.486 --> 00:09:23.870 Oh Caine's Arcade (Caine's Arcade!) 00:09:23.870 --> 00:09:28.638 It's the best cardboard arcade ever been made (Ever made!) 00:09:28.638 --> 00:09:30.086 So grab yourself a fun pass 00:09:30.086 --> 00:09:32.753 And y'all come on down and play 00:09:32.753 --> 00:09:34.605 If you've got the pluck to try your luck 00:09:34.605 --> 00:09:36.388 Come on down to Caine's Arcade 00:09:44.157 --> 00:09:47.966 [ cheering ] 00:10:07.945 --> 00:10:11.091 First of all, I want to know how you got all of these people. 00:10:11.091 --> 00:10:15.405 Are those your friends? 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?" 00:10:24.056 --> 00:10:27.907 So I came out and there were real people in real life. 00:10:27.907 --> 00:10:32.282 Like they're really playing the games. 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. 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. 00:10:51.489 --> 00:10:53.915 And I was proud.