storing function names in db and running them as row is output?

First, the example I have is not the real situation, just an example so I don't want to get into why are you doing it like that, etc. Just want to see if it's possible. Basically, I want to store stuff in a text field in a db like this "johns name is ucfirst('john adams') ". When I cycle through that row for output in my php script, I want it to not see ucfirst as text but as the php function and run it....how is the possible? Thanks.