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Bradley Skinner spent 25 years in education, most of it in theater, teaching students that the skills they build on stage apply far beyond it. He served briefly as a vice principal, worked alongside mentors he still credits today, and eventually returned to the classroom so he could share a stage with his own daughters in the theater program. Then, in a move he describes as "running away to join the circus, in a very literal and figurative way," he resigned from teaching to become a full-time DJ for the Savannah Bananas baseball team.

The pivot did not happen overnight. In 2024, Skinner brought a group of theater students to a Savannah Bananas game in Salt Lake City, framing the outing as an educational opportunity. He wanted them to see how theatrical skills translate into careers far outside a traditional stage. While his students took photos with ballplayers, Skinner sought out the team's DJ, a performer who goes by DJ JC. The two stayed in touch, collaborated on a school fundraiser, and eventually DJ JC encouraged Skinner to audition. After multiple rounds, the final audition landed him in front of roughly 50,000 people at Coors Field in Denver. He got the job.

A stage name born in the back row

Skinner performs under the name DJ Phony Stark, and the origin of that name is a classroom story as much as a branding one. For years, people had compared him to actor Robert Downey Jr., regardless of whether he had a beard. In 2017, a freshman student sitting in the back row on the first day of school tried to get a laugh at the teacher's expense. "More like Phony Stark," the student called out. Skinner's response surprised everyone in the room: he asked permission to use it as his stage name. The student, who had expected to be sent to the principal's office, instead heard that he was clever. "I was like, I didn't think it was rude. I thought it was brilliant," Skinner recalled. Over the following weeks, the student moved closer to the front of the room, row by row, and eventually became one of Skinner's top performers in English class. The name stuck, and so did the lesson about what happens when you redirect a student's energy rather than shut it down.

What Fans First Entertainment does differently

Skinner is direct about what made the Savannah Bananas a hard offer to turn down. He describes the organization's founder, Jesse Cole, as "the closest thing I've ever met to P.T. Barnum or Walt Disney," adding that it is not hyperbole. What he observed across every department, from ticket sales to merchandise to customer relations, was a consistent commitment to a fans-first culture that extended inward to the staff as well. That internal care became clearest to him during a game at Yankee Stadium, a venue that carried significant personal weight. Skinner's father had been a lifelong Yankees fan who never made it to a game at the new stadium before passing away from cancer. Skinner had not been scheduled for that game, but the head of entertainment at Fans First remembered a detail from his job interview and reassigned him. "They didn't have to do that," Skinner said. "They did because not only they care about their fans, they care so much about their team, about their staff, about their employees."

The Bananas roster itself reflects the same blending of disciplines that Skinner spent his teaching career promoting. Performers like KJ Jackson bring a theater background to baseball, while Derek Klena, a Broadway lead whom Skinner used to show his students as an example of elite performance, now works alongside him on weekends. For Skinner, watching those two worlds merge at a professional level validates what he told students for years: you do not always have to choose one path.

Off-season work and the people you surround yourself with

The Bananas season runs from February through September, which means Skinner spends the off-season in schools, speaking at educational conferences, and doing student assemblies. He has been presenting at conferences since 2015, covering topics like building school culture and climate, growth mindset, and the idea that a small shift in language, like replacing "I can't" with "not yet," can change a student's trajectory. He brings the same energy from banana ball into those school visits, including the turntables.

Closing out the conversation, Skinner pointed to something broader than career strategy. The quality of the people around you, he argued, shapes what you are able to become. He credited mentors, colleagues at Fans First, and above all his wife, Melissa, whose encouragement made the leap from the classroom possible. "Surround yourself with people that are determined to see you succeed," he said. "Because in the past, I was surrounded by people that were hoping to see me fail. Those are two very different groups and I know which one I would much rather spend my time with."