Appearing on stage with a stool, a microphone, and a can of Diet Pepsi, Paula Poundstone is famous for her spontaneous wit and off-kilter humor. By popular demand, Poundstone returns to the Lincoln Theater in Yountville for one show this Saturday night.

Asked what would be different this year, Poundstone replied, “I can’t swear there will be nothing familiar about my show to someone who saw me a year and a half ago, but I’m very conscious of staying current and it’s a different night and it’ll be a different group. … I have jowls now,” she added, “That’s new.”

She makes you laugh out loud. With the skeletal framework of material she takes on stage for each show, Poundstone has the most fun improvising while interacting with the audience. “I do the time-honored ‘Where are you from and what do you do for a living?’ and the magic of a night shared with people who have come to laugh springs out of it. On a good night, about a third is improvised.”

What makes Paula Poundstone laugh? “Toilet paper stuck to someone’s shoe and many other highly intelligent witticisms,” she said.

Poundstone is heard regularly on NPR’s oddly informative weekly news quiz program, “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me.” This year Random House published her first book, “There Is Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say” and BRAVO debuted her newest standup comedy special, “Paula Poundstone: Look What the Cat Dragged in.”

A single mom, Poundstone lives in Santa Monica with her three children, Toshia, Allison and Thomas.  “I have a 16-year-old, a 13-year-old and a 9-year-old,” said Poundstone, “I wish I could be perfect so that I could always know that everything I did for my kids was the very best thing, because I love them so much. Instead, they just have me. I’m all I’ve got to give. I’m certainly teaching them to make do.”

Poundstone is also the national spokesperson for Friends of Libraries USA, a citizens support group that helps raise funds for local library summer reading programs and special events.

Discussing her new book, Poundstone said, “My book is a series of biographies of towering historic figures and in the telling of their story I tell my own. Even when I’m telling a comprehensive, authentic history of Abraham Lincoln, I can’t help being reminded of my own personal experiences and I am compelled to digress. For example, although I’ve never owned slaves, when I have a babysitter I try to come home early; the parallels practically leap off the page!”

When asked if she would write another book Poundstone said, “I like writing, but mostly I like being thought of as a writer. Writers are much more sophisticated than comics. A good writer would never be amused by toilet paper on the bottom of someone’s shoe.”

Poundstone has starred in several HBO specials and makes frequent appearances on David Letterman, Jay Leno and Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” She was the first woman to be invited to perform at the White House press correspondents’ dinner, and the first woman to receive a cable ACE award for best standup comedy special. She also received an ACE for best program interviewer and an American Comedy Award for funniest comedienne.

“Just smashing ... one of those exhausting, inspired, perfect evenings,” says David Edelstein, New York Magazine. The Boston Globe reported, “At the top of her game Poundstone has never been funnier. Off with a standing ovation!”

Paula Poundstone

Lincoln Theater, Yountville

Saturday, Sept. 29, 8 p.m.

Tickets: $25-$55

Box office:944-1300 or www.lincolntheater.org.