But Mr Romney is a more polished act nowadays, and Massachusetts is far more annoyed with its political establishment.
It wasn't a very polished act, but it was clean, and it wasn't any kind of fancy job, but it let me pitch in a little for food, or at least my food.
Mr. Hill's hilarious and somewhat ramshackle mix of burlesque, dance, song and bawdy repartee (warning: don't sit in the front row unless you want to be part of the show) is the antithesis of a polished nightclub act.
Audiences who prefer their comedy more upbeat and with more belly laughs may find the pace too quiet and unvarying, but Carr's cerebral and polished act cheerfully nudges the boundaries of good taste, knocks them over entirely, and gets away with it by being polite and middle-class.
Last summer, teenagers and children learned together and demonstrated their polished acts in impromptu solos and improvisations.
His nightclub act is a polished, carefully balanced program that weaves his theatrical signature songs, Top 40 hits, standards from the American songbook and '70s pop classics into a thoughtful self-portrait.
Few, however, have been as creatively profitable for both parties as that of William Bolcom and Joan Morris: separately, a composer and a singer; together, a popular and polished cabaret act.
Seventy-five years later, in ACT Three, storytelling has become a polished theatrical art, displayed here by familiar characters in a narrative that blends whimsy with homicidal melodrama.
Other TV-polished acts returning to the basics of theatre include Victoria Wood, at the Royal Albert Hall (6-12 September), and the League of Gentlemen - though you can probably expect their show at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane 12-199 March) to be rather more elaborately staged than the average stand-up show.
It's a polished set of six songs, some slow and jazzy ("Your Little Act"), others cute and catchy with a pop sheen ("Bumblebee").
