Interview with cardboard arcade creator, 9-year-old Caine Monroy

[Video Link] Shira Lazar of What's Trending visited 9-year-old Caine Monroy and his father to interview them about Caine's now-famous cardboard arcade.

[Caine] became an online sensation this week for building an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto parts store. At first, business was slow -- that is, until his first customer, filmmaker Nirvan Mullick, was inspired to organize a flashmob through Facebook and Reddit, sending a slew of worthy gamers upon Caine’s Arcade and capturing the magic day in a short film.

Now that the video has gone viral, the Caine’s Arcade Facebook page boasts over 45,000 Likes, with fans and supporters having raised over $100,000 for his scholarship fund in just three days.

Shira Lazar caught up with the young entrepreneur, his father George, and Producer/Director Nirvan Mullick to get their takes on the whirlwind week and, of course, play in the arcade!

Interview With 9-Year-Old Behind “Caine’s Arcade”

• [awjt]

  Errrh, more Shira, pls.  That is all.

  • [James Holmes]

    Really? Man, I can’t *STAND* her. I’d rather have two minutes of Caine just talking about his cardboard awesomeness rather than her talking.

    • [awjt]

       You have the volume on???

• [LogrusZed]

  It’s being reported on Gawker that a local arcade donated a classic pinball machine to his arcade.

  I have mixed-feelings. Not on the donation, that’s cool; but on the presence of a “normal” arcade piece in the cardboard arcade.

  • [marilove]

    Could just be something else he will take apart to find out how it works!  :)

    • [LogrusZed]

       That would be really cool, but I hope he manages to put it back together. Not because of the 4k pricetag, but because a pinball machine is a gift that keeps on giving.

• [Mariano Jorge Damian Palomino]

  post, very interesting .

• [Carl Stronso]

  A scholarship fund? College has become such a total waste of time and money. This kid obviously has the mind of an inventor and entrepreneur. Why make him spend the money on college when some of the worlds greatest inventors and entrepreneurs either never went, or dropped out of college?

  • [Will DAlen Rice]

    so, there are some outliers, but probably 99% of all the great minds currently working and building and innovating DID go to college.  they majored in engineering.  they arent mechanics.  they are engineers.  Engineering degrees ARE worth it…assuming you actually want to know how EVERYTHING works.

  • [BekaGulotta]

    That’s a strange argument to make, and an unscientific one at that. Plenty of people go to college, get a great education, and find jobs. Plenty of people do not go to college, get a great education, and find jobs. It’s not up to you to decide what’s good for this kid who is all of 9 years old. 

    • [awjt]

      I learned all kinds of shit in college that had absolutely nothing to do with college.  I think he should go.

• [peabody3000]

  sorry but i am one of the naysayers. it has nothing to do with the kid, who deserves encouragement for his efforts of course. however i take major issue with the film’s portrayal that the kid made something extraordinary on a level rarely seen for kids his age. if he had baked a cherry pie from scratch i would have been much more impressed. he is doing what all kids do: playing. he spends his days at an auto parts store so he plays with what’s there: boxes and tape. i, my neighbors, my friends, we all did this as kids. it took an ad agency (interconnected) to very slickly make this subject into something that it simply is not, using glowing music and video footage with dramatic editing. i dont begrudge the kid anything, but again i think its extremely important to realize that if you take the video away, all you are left with is a bored kid playing with boxes and tape the way many kids do every day. why is this important to realize? because the same video techniques are ALWAYS used to spread misinformation, be it about politics, war, business, etc etc