KEY WEST - Sushi used to drink several vodka cocktails before her New Year's Eve tradition of climbing into an 8-foot, red high-heel shoe that sways over a sea of revelers on Duval Street.
But now the drag queen -- born Gary Marion -- delays her wild celebrating until the shoe drops at the stroke of midnight.
''Because we've been on CNN the last few years, they don't want me too tipsy,'' Sushi said last week. ``They want me to be sober for [CNN anchor] Anderson Cooper.''
Tonight marks the 10th Sushi dropping and the fourth time the international news network will make the 39-year-old drag queen and Key West part of its live worldwide coverage to ring in the new year.
CNN correspondent John Zarrella said many eyebrows were raised four years ago when the idea was first pitched.
'But after we did it, the reaction was: `Wow!' It became a hit right off the bat,'' Zarrella said. 'Since then people have said to me: `What would New Year's Eve be like without Zarrella in Key West with the drag queens?' ''
It all began a decade ago, when Bourbon Street complex owner Joey Schroeder and then-general manager Jim Gilleran brainstormed about how they could lure revelers to party at their gay-friendly block of Duval Street - Key West's primary tourist street.
''We were trying to think of what would be fun,'' Schroeder said.
They knew New Year's Eve is known for champagne, parties, resolutions -- and dropping something.
DROP EVERYTHING
The crystal ball in New York's Times Square was the first. Since that celebration's 1907 debut, many cities have featured their own dropping celebrations.
In Havre de Grace, Md., it's a giant duck. Bill the Stuffed Goat falls in Conroy Township, Penn., trying not to be outdone by Lucky the Frozen Carp in Prairie du Chien, Wisc.
Brasstown, N.C., celebrates with a ''possum drop,'' and Atlanta features the lowering of an 800-pound peach. Last year, after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans dropped a giant gumbo pot in the French Quarter. And Miami traditionally drops the big orange.
Key West already had been dropping a pirate's wench at the Schooner Wharf bar and a conch shell at Sloppy Joe's bar, the old Ernest Hemingway haunt.
''We were trying to figure out what could top the conch shell,'' Schroeder said.
Inspiration came from the 1994 Australian cult hit, The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, which features two drag queens and a transsexual who travel across the Outback.
FIRST TIME OUT
Everybody involved now laughs about the fiasco of the first Sushi dropping. For starters, the original shoe was not exactly sturdy. It was made out of papier-mché and chicken wire by a Stock Island boat builder.
''We put Sushi in the shoe, and she was scared to death,'' Schroeder recalled. ``We put a harness on her, but she was still shaking like a leaf.''
A large crowd gathered outside the two-story complex that houses the Bourbon Street Pub and New Orleans Guest House, from which Sushi's shoe is suspended like a window washer's platform.
But organizers didn't have a permit, and the police ordered Sushi to get down immediately because hundreds of inebriated gawkers were blocking the street.
When she didn't leave the shoe, police called then-city Commissioner Merili McCoy, who was in bed sleeping.
''She told the cops to leave us alone,'' Schroeder said. And at midnight, Sushi dropped all of about five feet, onto the bar's awning.
Yet a tradition had begun.
It has grown bigger and more popular over the years, despite Sushi's misgivings when she saw that a potato spud had been dropped in Idaho: ``I thought I would become passé.''
Over the years, Sushi -- who began as ''Soy Sauce'' until a fellow drag queen thought the name was too ethnic and changed it -- became more well-known. Now she drops from a beautiful and sturdy red fiberglass stiletto heel made by a local artist.
It's amazing to see the slender, 5-11 man transform into a knock-dead gorgeous woman.
''Every year the big question is, `What will Sushi wear?''' Sushi said in her Key West studio, which features three industrial sewing machines, yards of colorful fabric and bins piled to the ceiling with sequins, feathers, beads, ribbons, jewelry, buttons and Velcro.
In the past she has dressed up as a geisha and Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda. In 2000, Schroeder took her shopping at an upscale store in Fort Lauderdale. He gave her a $300 budget, but she walked out with a $1,300 light blue ballroom gown that made her look ``flawless.''
That night, Sushi said she and the dress ended up in a pool -- one of a slew of notable New Year's Eve ''Sushi sightings'' over the years.
Now Schroeder gives her a budget and she designs and sews her costumes, as well as those of other drag queens in the show. As for this year's gown, Sushi would reveal only that it's a ''feathered number'' and that she will be throwing golden eggs, along with her usual beads, to a crowd that will number in the thousands.
STAGE SHOW
For this year's 10th dropping, Sushi said organizers are upgrading the entertainment, putting on a two-hour show on a stage sponsored by Coca-Cola. Porsche, a drag queen from New York who is known for her thousand voices, will be the hostess. Costumes will feature leopards, snakes, birds and a cow -- themes inspired by a Sushi visit to Las Vegas to see Zumanity, an adult-themed cabaret show.
Sushi makes her grand entrance at 11 p.m. to a number by Peruvian singer Yma Sumac, who is known for her range of five octaves. Then she will climb into the shoe and ''look pretty'' for an hour.
CNN never knows what to expect from Key West.
One year, Sushi told Cooper he was the sexiest anchor on TV. It made the usually unflappable Cooper blush.
Last year, it was Zarrella's turn to blush. Drag queen Kylie, a former high school classmate of Sushi's, put a crown on Zarrella, gave him a kiss on the cheek and said: ``You see, you really are the king of queens. Happy New Year.''
