This Keys performer drops in a giant shoe every New Year’s Eve. Now, it’s all about masks
With bars and nightclubs shut down in Key West, even drag queens are looking for work.
Many have found it.
The performers are not sitting idle during the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re making masks.
Led by Gary “Sushi” Marion, the drag queen who drops from inside a giant red shoe every New Year’s Eve on Duval Street — a favorite shoot for CNN — the 13 801 Bourbon Bar performers have made about 3,500 face masks so far.
Now, they are sought after the world over, having ended up in almost every state along with Canada, Germany, England, France and the Philippines, for necessity during the health crisis — but also for the little “Sushi Key West” label affixed to each cloth face covering.
“All of the drag queens from 801 Cabaret have helped me sew, cut and iron all the masks,” said Marion, who owns the 801 Cabaret show, which ran twice a night, seven days a week before the pandemic shut it down.
Marion got the idea after watching a random elderly woman making masks in a Facebook post the morning after 801 Bourbon Bar closed.
“I said I’m an old lady and I have material, I can do it!” Marion said. “I started making them for friends and then I had people asking if they could buy them so I started a donation site.”
The money pays for housing, food and other basic expenses.
“And we’ve raised enough money to cover two months so far of the 13 drag queens who work for me,” Marion said.
In the first week of mask-making, Marion ran out of supplies, so he took a flight to Seattle to visit his younger brother and stock up, returning home with $3,000 worth of fabric.
“I flew back, it only cost me $11 on Delta,” Marion said, laughing.
Marion, originally from Salem, Oregon, movd to Portland before trading in the gloomy, rainy weather for the tropical climate of Key West in 1994. He started doing drag in 1985 while still in high school at a Portland club.
Done with the rainy weather of the Pacific Northwest, he moved down to the Keys.
“I went down Duval and stopped in front of 801 and ran in and said, ‘You know where a gay bar is?’”
A man inside replied, “You’re in one, sister!”
For 21 years now, “Sushi” has dropped inside a giant shoe onto Duval Street, making the front of the New York Times’ travel section in 2000, which drew CNN’s attention.
Sushi lives in a New Town home that feels far away from the late-night lights of Duval Street, adoring Key West as a small town with an international flavor and enjoying many friendships that began 27 years ago.
“People in Key West actually care about each other and take care of each other,” Marion said. “It’s such a small town but you have an influx from all over the world so you never get bored.”
The mask-making industry is strong in Key West these days. The Sister Season Fund, which for years has helped service industry workers pay the bills while injured or ill, has given at least 75 unemployed households $1,000 checks since the pandemic started.
Sister Season is raising the money partially by selling masks and has had several public sales events around town. Volunteers make them and Sister Season sells them off Venmo and Facebook.
Another Key West drag performer is also making masks in order to make ends meet.
Donavan Pavlicek, who performs at the Aqua nightclub on Duval Street as Beatrix Dixie, has made about 400 masks on his own over the past few weeks.
“I’m a seamstress,” said Pavlicek, 32, a native of Woodbridge, Virginia, who has a bachelor’s degree in fashion from the Illinois Institute of Art. “I make the dresses I perform in.”
With Aqua shut down like most of Duval Street, the mask-making has helped him pay some bills. He learned the mask trade by watching YouTube videos.
But Pavlicek, who has lived in Key West for eight years, also has been able to help locals in need: an elderly couple in Bahama Village that couldn’t find masks a few weeks ago and a woman staying at a domestic abuse shelter.
“She was a complete stranger and when I dropped them off to her I started crying,” Pavlicek said. “She was telling me she has been sober and is trying to get herself back together. That made me feel really good to donate to someone who really needed it and is doing the best to keep a smile on her face.”
Pavlicek said he just bought more fabric on Friday and plans to keep making the masks.
“I feel like this is going to be awhile,” he said.
How to order the Key West-made face masks
Sushi Key West
- @KeyWest801Girls on Venmo. For PayPal, send to KeyWest801Girls@gmail.com In the note, put your name, address and the number of masks requested.
Donavan Pavlicek
- @BrianleeDonavan-Pavlicek on Venmo.
The Sister Season Fund
- @SisterSeasonFund on Venmo.
This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 5:23 AM with the headline "This Keys performer drops in a giant shoe every New Year’s Eve. Now, it’s all about masks."
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