Rachel Bloom has every excuse in the world to be exhausted. It’s been just two days since she arrived back in Los Angeles from the Tony Awards, where she served as the show’s backstage correspondent for the second consecutive year and found time to send off the perfect retort to an ill-conceived Neil Patrick Harris tweet. (More on that later.)

Now, in the immediate aftermath of a GQ shoot, Bloom is sitting down with me over a cup of tea and a croissant. As soon as our interview is over, she’ll speed off to the writer’s room to resume work on the fourth and final season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend—the CW series on which she pulls triple duty as co-creator, writer, and star, in a role that requires her to literally sing and dance her way through one of the most unflinching, open-hearted depictions of mental illness on television.

So yes: At this point, exhaustion would probably be defensible. But as soon as we start talking, it’s clear that Bloom, somehow, still has energy to spare. In conversation, Bloom is candid, reflective, and sincere—but with a natural talent for knowing when to veer off into a witty aside or a wicked joke. It’s a skill that has established Bloom as one of the most innovative and multifaceted comedic performers of her generation, and a talent worth following across any medium she chooses to tackle:

GQ: You’ve been a Broadway super-fan since you were a kid. Now you’re attending the Tonys every year. What’s the difference between what you always imagined it would be and what it’s actually like?

Rachel Bloom: You know, it’s all the hard, mundane work on everyone’s part. If you’re performing in the Tonys—even if you are Patti LuPone or Christine Ebersole—you are there, starting at 8 a.m., in full hair and makeup, because they have to get it for the broadcast. And then they schlep you back to a theater to wait around all day. You’re working your ass off. There’s no velvet chaise lounge where someone gives you a massage. You’re hoofing it all of the time.

How did you end up as the Tonys’ go-to backstage correspondent?

I wanted to present last year—but I’ve never been on Broadway, and they have a policy that says you can’t present if you’ve never been on Broadway. But they said, "You can do this backstage correspondent gig." This year, I heightened it more—added some more jokes, and a little more on my Instagram. And I got to share a dressing room with Patti LuPone, which is so fucking cool. I spent a lot of the Tonys just watching, in the dressing room with Patti. And then later I walked back into the dressing room, to find, instead of Patti, Ms. Bernadette Peters. The first time I met her was when I was 11 and I saw her in Annie Get Your Gun, and I don’t think she’d remember that. And look: She and Patti LuPone might be my two favorite performers in the world. I was talking with Bernadette, and I was very casual. And then after I left I just walked back into the room and said, "By the way, I just have to let you know: I love you so much. You are one of my heroes. You’re my favorite performer. I love you so much." I hadn’t said that yet! Because you’re trying to play it cool. But I had to let her know.

How did she respond?

She loved it. Because you can’t react badly when someone says something like that. That’s what I’ve learned. Most people—most people you meet—are pretty nice. And I realize I’m coming from a different place, now, having a TV show. They say, "Don’t judge people by how they treat their equals." Judge them by how they treat their… lessers? But I have to say, specifically with Patti, I met her when I was in college. I went to this big CD signing with the whole cast of the revival of Sweeney Todd. And she complimented my coat. Even back then.