By the early 1970s, Chevy Chase was already making big moves. During that time, he established himself as a dependable comedy writer and even managed to get a piece published in Mad magazine. From there, he’d land gigs writing for The National Lampoon Radio Hour and The Smothers Brothers Show. Chase’s big break as a cast member on Saturday Night Live was still a little ways away, however.

Interestingly enough, things may not have played out as they did for Chase if it hadn’t been for the 1975 comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That spring, the movie was playing at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, and Chase decided to attend a midnight showing. Also standing in line at that screening was Lorne Michaels, an up-and-coming writer in the process of getting a cast together for the first season of Saturday Night Live. Luckily for Chase, Michaels was accompanied by Rob Reiner, who Chase had met once or twice before that.

As everyone was waiting to get in, Chase kept the crowd entertained by telling jokes and doing impressions. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was basically auditioning for Michaels’s new show. Amused by what he’d seen, Michaels asked Reiner, “Who is that guy?” If you’re expecting us to tell you that Chase jumped in and said, “I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not,” you’re in for a little disappointment. Actually, the rest of the night was pretty uneventful; Reiner simply explained to Michaels that Chase was a writer for the Smothers Brothers, and they made their way into the theater without saying a word to Chase.

Shortly thereafter, Chase received a call from his agent, who told him that Michaels wanted to meet with him. What eventually sealed the deal for Michaels was when he got to see one of Chase’s legendary pratfalls for the first time while the two were out one rainy evening. “He goes into a pothole, does a complete ass-over-teakettle into this immense pothole, and comes out of this thing just soaked,” NBC executive Dick Ebersol later recalled. “Lorne looks at me and says, ‘Now, how could you say no to somebody who was crazy enough to do that?’”