The Young Professor

The Young Professor Cast Director & Chief Potassium Enthusiast for The Savannah Bananas. Pro live event host (NHL, NASCAR, PPA Tour, and more). Sharp dressed man 🤵 Ladies. Gentlemen.

Boys and Girls... and Live Event Enthusiasts from around the world! The Young Professor Matt Graifer has been an a live event host, announcer, DJ and speaker for over a decade and has performed in front of more than 1,000,000 people in that time! He is best known as the Host/Chief Potassium Enthusiast for The Savannah Bananas, and he has also announced for NASCAR at the 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at

the Daytona International Speedway. He began his sports career as a professional wrestling ring announcer, before adding MMA, boxing, and then team sports event hosting to his repertoire, working for teams and events like the Daytona Tortugas MiLB team, the Jacksonville Sharks arena football team, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Men's/Women's Basketball teams, the NXL Paintball World Cup, and many more. The Young Professor (aka Matt Graifer) was ACTUALLY that: a young professor! At the age of 25, he started as a professor of an exercise science program where he taught 25 separate collegiate level courses over a nearly 8 year span. He then spent several years as a high school social studies teacher. The Daytona Beach News Journal named him Best Live Entertainer in 2018 and in 2022 he was named one of the 40 Under Forty for the same newspaper. The Professor maintains a remarkably busy schedule, but is always interested in new, exciting opportunities. If you or someone you know is in need of a host, DJ, or motivational speaker for your event: you'd be hard pressed to find someone more experienced, better dressed, or more FUN than the one and only Young Professor!

Banana Ball in Chicago was a weekend to remember. 🖤 🤍 The Savannah Bananas📸 : Cassie Noel Photography
08/20/2025

Banana Ball in Chicago was a weekend to remember. 🖤 🤍

The Savannah Bananas

📸 : Cassie Noel Photography

08/19/2025

SPOILER: They got the band back together…

When in …. You gotta pay tribute to The Blues Brothers.

Saturday Night Live
Rad Bod Mikey
Space Cowboy Stacee Alexander
The Savannah Bananas

Managed to snap a few pics with some Chicago White Sox royalty this weekend.This past weekend was one for the ages in th...
08/18/2025

Managed to snap a few pics with some Chicago White Sox royalty this weekend.

This past weekend was one for the ages in the Windy City.

📺 STORY TIME 📺 When I was a teenager, if anyone had ever asked me what my dream job is I would have told them it would b...
08/17/2025

📺 STORY TIME 📺

When I was a teenager, if anyone had ever asked me what my dream job is I would have told them it would be to be on Saturday Night Live . I loved that show growing up. The cast of my childhood was Farley, Myers, Carvey, Spade, Rock, Sandler, Schneider, Meadows, Hartman, and Lovitz. I watched old reruns of stuff from the 80s and and even some 70s, and I’ve always kept up with it in some form since then.

When I grew up, I just never did anything about that “dream job.” I got a traditional degree. I never really did theater. I got a regular job. I never chased my “dream job.”

Fast forward to now, and I’m a full time entertainer as a live event host. I’m also a writer/producer/director of The Savannah Bananas pre game stage show Before the Peel where I have a lot of creative liberty in terms of what kinds of entertainment we put in front of our fans. I’m also a contributing writer and performer in our main show once the game starts.

In Chicago this weekend, I felt like I was living that dream SNL job more than ever. We’ve been playing with more and more silly skits and using characters in our shows lately, and we went big this weekend. On Saturday, I was asked to just dress and impersonate famed Chicago legend Coach Mike Ditka 🐻 which I had a lot of fun with. I even shaved my beard after my pre game hype intro right in the dugout so I could look more the part. It was silly but it was fun, because I don’t usually get to portray characters and I felt like I nailed it.

On Saturday, we did a full on recreation and tribute to The Blues Brothers with Space Cowboy Stacee Alexander , Rad Bod Mikey , and a few guys from The Banana Band . Stacee pitched this to me at least 4 months ago and they’ve had the costumes waiting for the right moment, but we pulled the trigger on it in Chicago for obvious reasons. The guys CRUSHED their performance and I think Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi would have been proud.

Our show continues to evolve and we continue to find unique ways to pay tribute to the cool, fun cities we are in even in parts of our show that are not on TV. I may not be in studio 8H, but I’m living the dream of performing in front of millions of fans doing a variety show every week, and that’s a pretty cool thing to realize as I reflect.

Squad in the Windy City.
08/17/2025

Squad in the Windy City.

As of last night, I’ve performed as the host in sold out shows in both Chicago MLB ballparks with Chance The Rapper in t...
08/16/2025

As of last night, I’ve performed as the host in sold out shows in both Chicago MLB ballparks with Chance The Rapper in the same 365 day span.

First the NHL in December at Wrigley, and last night for a Banana Ball game at Rate Field.

Back in Chicago, so had to bust out my jersey for the occasion.So what if it’s long sleeves and 90+ degrees? Gotta ...
08/15/2025

Back in Chicago, so had to bust out my jersey for the occasion.

So what if it’s long sleeves and 90+ degrees? Gotta throw the fit in Chicago.

Can confirm. Shark On The Mic and I went to The Wiener's Circle late, and received 5 star service. The gentleman at the ...
08/15/2025

Can confirm. Shark On The Mic and I went to The Wiener's Circle late, and received 5 star service. The gentleman at the counter even offered us two fresh bananas on the way out. 🍌 🍌

What a guy. 10/10 would recommend.

📰BREAKING NEWS📰 The cast of Banana Ball : The Savannah Bananas, The Firefighters, and The Party Animals are highlighted ...
08/14/2025

📰BREAKING NEWS📰

The cast of Banana Ball : The Savannah Bananas, The Firefighters, and The Party Animals are highlighted in the upcoming edition of PWI Pro Wrestling Illustrated , available now in digital and on newsstands on Sept. 2!

Why?

Because beyond playing baseball, the 2nd largest pipeline to being a Banana Ball performer is coming through the doors of professional wrestling!

Harry Burkett did a masterful job of telling our story, and we want to encourage all of our friends and fans from both wrestling AND Banana Ball to go and scoop up a copy! It’s available for preorder on their website or available for digital download NOW.

We are beyond grateful to make the pages of a prestigious magazine we all have grown up reading and admiring 🙏

Who wore it better? The infamous from the airport.The Savannah Bananas 🤣
08/13/2025

Who wore it better? The infamous from the airport.

The Savannah Bananas 🤣

🍌 Happy Birthday Before the Peel 🍌 This week is 2 years since we went to Trenton, NJ to play Banana Ball , which means t...
08/11/2025

🍌 Happy Birthday Before the Peel 🍌

This week is 2 years since we went to Trenton, NJ to play Banana Ball , which means that today is the 2 year anniversary of the first ever “Before the Peel” show!

The show was born out of a couple of things we noticed from our fans at that time: we had them out in the plaza for about an hour before we opened gates with no entertainment other than a DJ and since it was summer, it was intensely hot and uncomfortable and we wanted to provide a distraction of some sort.

Isaac Cool and I were the creators of that show (and still are the main producer/directors of the current stage shows) and I remember those first few shows so well: they were awful 🤣

We had never scripted or produced a stage show before, and we learned so much. We learned how important stage positioning was based on how we did tickets at the time (it was still first available seating, so if the stage was not right in front of the gates no one cared what we were doing), and we began learning what kinds of segments worked and what didn’t. We learned how important musical cues and sound effects could be, and by the time the tour ended in late September we had a decent little pre-pre-show (that’s what we called it in 2023).

In 2024 we wanted it to be bigger and better, and we really made that happen. The show got longer, it got more equipment, and we found unique ways to use our cast, players, and broadcasters. We played with new skits and we had a name: Before the Peel. It was geared towards preparing our fans for what they’d experience in the stadium. It was a big improvement, but if I’m being honest it was too similar from day to day, something that Isaac and I really began to work on toward the end of another crazy season.

In 2025, I can say that our stage pre shows are finally dialed in and are now a full blown entertainment spectacle in and of themselves. Before the Peel is now a 90 minute, jam packed extravaganza of talent featuring constant special guests, lots of great skits that get rotated, and tons of silly experiments in front of tens of thousands of fans there to see The Savannah Bananas . Pre-Party Live for The Party Animals games is a showcase of the Animal House (the Party Animals cast) and all they have to offer to our fans including the coolest party band in the nation: Party Down rocking the house. Fire Drill Live was a bold attempt to capture that same pep-rally energy that was also successful on The Firefighters tour, and it will continue to expand next season. The as-yet-unnamed pre show for The Texas Tailgaters is going to be a total integration into what makes that show what it’s supposed to be: the greatest pre show in sports.

All of these shows that entertain Banana Ball fans became possible because 2 years ago, Isaac Cool and I decided to ask ourselves what else could we do for our fans. How could we truly “entertain always” and how could we plus their experience? Those questions are the foundation for the festival like atmosphere we’ve created before every Banana Ball game, and that show is the thing I am most proud of in all of my time with Fans First Entertainment. I believe it is the true legacy of what Isaac and I will leave behind some day.

If you have never come out early to a game to see this show, I ask that you make it a point next time you come see us. It is worth the extra hours in the plaza, and you will not be disappointed.

🍌

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Palm Coast, FL

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