Concierge Confidential

by Michael Fazio, with Michael Malice
Reviewed by Terri Schlichenmeyer
ONLY ON THE WEB

Some people, well, you’d do anything for them. The sweet older lady next door calls for a favor and you go running. Your nephew bats those baby blues and you buy out the toy store for him. If she asked, you’d dig ditches for a beloved former boss, and all your mom has to do is crook her finger for you to be at her service.

Is serving what you do best? Could you do it for a living? Read the new book Concierge Confidential by Michael Fazio (with Michael Malice) and you’ll think twice before answering.

When Charlie Sheen called and asked if the boss was in, Michael Fazio was barely fazed. Fazio figured it would be a small step from agency assistant to “the next big Hollywood movie mogul,” and a good mogul isn’t impressed with fame.

But Fazio’s job at The Liberty Agency didn’t so much include hob-nobbing with the stars as it did taking care of his boss, Glennis. He soon learned that keeping her happy meant plugging in her curlers and making coffee before she got to work. Caring for her was, oddly, something Fazio enjoyed doing.

After another brief assistant’s job and a gig playing piano on a cruise ship, Fazio and his partner, Jeffrey, moved to Manhattan. Though Fazio was initially unemployed, he quickly found a job at the InterContinental Hotel on 48th Street, where he learned that his unique strengths would best be put to use as a concierge.

A good concierge, like a good businessperson, has lots of contacts to call upon for favors. He or she excels at making the impossible possible. Though celebrities and millionaires are the concierge’s typical clients, anyone staying at a hotel with a concierge can use the services offered.

Fazio writes about finding yachts for his clients, as well as tickets to sold-out concerts, reservations to jam-packed restaurants and nightclubs, and yes, even the unconventional. He writes about good tippers, bad eateries, ugly situations, and how he survived them all.

Going on vacation this summer? Check this book out before you leave.

Concierge Confidential includes the dishiest stories of wealth and celebrity, as well as a wealth of tips on star treatment and getting the best results from your hotel stay. Authors Michael Fazio and Michael Malice don’t stop there, though. They explain what a concierge does, where you’ll find one, and how to get what you need (hint: being a jerk won’t impress anybody). In between lessons, you’ll be regaled by tales of Hollywood and Broadway, challenges and chefs, businessmen and bubbleheads, hissy-fitting stars and hustling scammers, and the rich and famous.

And then, if your hotel doesn’t have a devoted concierge, you’ll learn how to schmooze tickets, reservations, and admission on your own.

It’s hard not to love something that so effortlessly entertains, and Concierge Confidential does just that. If you’re heading for holiday, or if you’re just up for a light, fun, privy look at leisure and luxury, you should do anything to get this book.

Concierge Confidential
by Michael Fazio, with Michael Malice
2011, St. Martin’s Press (us.macmillan.com/smp.aspx)
271 pages, $24.99

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old, and she lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.