COMEDY REVIEW : Shandling a Bit Shaky at Improv : Comedian sticks to his billing, trying out some new things and repeating some old routines.

Much of the charm in “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” came from its anarchic viewpoint--Shandling, with the barely suppressed glee of a prankster on a long leash, tweaked television conventions offhandedly.

Since the sitcom-that-wasn’t-a-sitcom went off the air in April, Shandling has been planning his next move, which will include a television special at some point. As preparation, he’s refining his stand-up act, trying out material and finding out what works. At the Improv Monday night, where he continues through Thursday, Shandling even took notes when a joke clicked or inspiration hit him.

Shandling also kept reminding the audience that he’s been away from the microphone a long time. “Don’t feel pressure to laugh,” he said, then pretended he was in the crowd, “I didn’t know we’d be paying to give him therapy.”

His hiatus was pretty obvious, at least early on when his long and often funny set sputtered as he searched for a comfortable rhythm. Shandling never did find full balance, but he was amusing as usual with his troubled little tales about life in the Shandling zone.

One problem he faces is being compared to “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” especially the program’s quirkier side. Certainly some fans came in search of the Shandling persona--the self-effacing, self-absorbed guy who elevated fretting (about his hair and nearly everything else) to something approaching meditation. It may have been unfair to expect those blasts of rarefied air at the Improv--you can’t do the same things in a nightclub you can do in a television studio--but there were times when more invention would have carried him higher.

Shandling may have felt restrained by the venue. In any event, it was a pretty safe set that stayed well within the chalk marks of stand-up comedy. It also seemed just what he billed it as: part testing of waters and part well-honed routines that he is obviously confident about.

At his best, Shandling can draw an audience into his world with deft asides and revealing looks at how he thinks and operates. His anecdotes usually combine the spin of someone who sees things differently than most of us with the mundane observations that we can relate to more directly.

These components popped up throughout the set’s better patches, such as when he talked about becoming pals (and even comedy partners) with President Bush (“He’s really warm, like your ‘Uncle Bush.’ ”) Bush takes Garry on a personal tour of the White House and points out the original Gettysburg Address. “There’s neat stuff like this all over the place,” Bush tells him.

Later, after their comedy routine at a press-club dinner is a success, Bush calls him at the hotel, waking him from a deep sleep. Garry grudgingly accepts the call and Bush’s congratulations on a great show. But before hanging up, he can’t resist yelling, “Are you gonna call Mikhail Gorbachev and wake him up too?”

Before that, Shandling talked about his trip to Hawaii with a dog-loving girlfriend. It was all going so nicely until they decided to take a drive out in the country. . . .

See, they were out in this beautiful field and then he was running away from a bull, clutching a stray dog named “Shep” under his arm, when he fell in a hole and broke his leg. . . . Eventually that stray dog makes his way to Garry’s condo in the Valley and gets along great with his golden retriever but it’s so hot one day that the retriever catches on fire and Garry wonders if he should light the cat as a “backfire” but. . . . Well, it’s a really long story.

Uh-huh. And what were you saying about your hair?

Garry Shandling will perform today and Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at the Improv, 4255 Campus Drive, Irvine. Tickets: sold out. Information: (714) 854-5455.