Jeff Garlin, Soho Theatre

It must be the beautiful British weather that has attracted a bunch of American comics to UK shores recently. Just before Las Vegas legend Rita Rudner starts a short season at the Leicester Square Theatre in London and hot on the heels of his Curb Your Enthusiasm sometime colleague Jerry Seinfeld (who recently did one night at the O2 in Greenwich and of whom more later) comes Jeff Garlin. He plays “fat fuck” Jeff, Larry David’s agent in the HBO sitcom, which, I’m delighted to report, returns in a new season on the BBC later this summer.

Garlin makes a point of his girth from the off, telling us that despite his recent weight loss he’s still a fat guy, albeit one who does Pilates three times a week. He hasn’t touched sugar - which he likens in its addictive powers to heroin - for two and a half years, in a show that’s big on observation but thin on jokes.

The American remarks at one point that he loves British comedy, such as Monty Python and The Mighty Boosh, and indeed has taken a leaf out of John Cleese’s book with his visible prompt list. He needs it, he says, because he has no act as such - and he ain’t lying - just a bunch of stories, and he decides as he goes along which he will recount. That’s a shame as Garlin is clearly a very funny guy, but one whose material has very few punchlines and which desperately needs some structure to stop it feeling rather flat or frustrating. Over the course of 90 minutes he starts telling one story after another, only to get blown off course by a fidgeting audience member, or a thought that pops into his head, or the memory loss he blames on having a stroke in 2000 caused by his overeating.

Food and doughnuts in particular feature prominently in Garlin’s set, but he doesn’t analyse why some people overeat or what it is in his personality that caused his overconsumption. I can think of any number of comics - chief among them Stewart Lee - who would develop this seemingly innocuous self-revelation into fascinating insights about the human condition, and be painfully funny about it.

There are some gems, though. Garlin is a talented mimic, as his appearance in Wall-E attests, and his impression of Seinfeld is spot on. He also gives an honest appraisal of fellow comics, such as Ricky Gervais - “He is a little pleased with himself” - and tells us he’s at the stage of his life that when he says he wants to sleep with a woman, he means just that. “If there was a programme called ‘Napping With the Stars’ I’d do it. I wouldn’t need a trainer, and I’d win it outright.”

There are some corking starting points to Garlin’s anecdotes, too - taking his son’s circumcised foreskin to Disneyland, proposing to his wife at a Neil Diamond concert and why Krispy Kreme doughnuts saved his life - but where they should be hilarious, they fade into “and that was that” endings.

It’s an amiable enough show but one that never takes off, and I was surprised when Garlin said he had worked really hard to put it together. Maybe on other nights it’s a stormer but last night he was caught napping.

• Jeff Garlin is at Soho Theatre, London W1 until 26 June (sold out)
• Find Curb Your Enthusiasm on Amazon
• Book tickets for Rita Rudner at Leicester Square Theatre, London WC2, 30 June-8 July