Whoopi Goldberg is one of only a dozen performers in history to have captured the top four awards in show business. Goldberg — born Caryn Elaine Johnson in 1955 — captured an Oscar in 1990 as Patrick Swayze’s madcap psychic in “Ghost,” won a Tony in 2002 for her role in “Thoroughly Modern Millie,”  has three Emmys for the “Comic Relief” specials for the homeless, her part in “Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel,” and, this year, for her co-hosting duties on “The View.”

But it is her first major award, a 1985 Grammy for Best Comedy Recording (“Whoopi Goldberg — Original Broadway Show Recording”) that comes closest to what Whoopi will do New Year’s Eve at Mystic Lake Casino, her first local live performances in more than 20 years. Her distinctive blend of acerbic observations and amiable chit-chat is well-suited for an end-of-the-year stand-up show that is sure to revisit and tweak the topical hot buttons of 2009.

The subversive nature of stage name provided a clue that Goldberg would skewer rather than bludgeon the ignorance that fosters race- and gender-identity politics. And the ongoing current-affairs debates that have always made The View a cut above the typical morning gabfests have sharpened her awareness of the vices and virtues of Middle American family values. How all this plays out amid the festive revelry of the holiday — how Whoopi puts together a show on the cusp of 2010, in other words — is an intrigue that promises its fair share of laughs and comeuppances.

Here is a political riff that was part of Whoopi’s “Back to Broadway” stand-up a couple of years ago.

Here she is from the same tour talking about “how to raise our kids.”

Here she is rebutting a Glenn Beck falsehood to his face on The View.

Whoopi Goldberg at Mystic Lake Casino, Thursday, Dec. 31 at 7 and 9:30 p.m.; tickets $59 and $69.