diff --git a/2011/akari/try.sh b/2011/akari/try.sh
index 08cc310ef..8c5846d1e 100755
--- a/2011/akari/try.sh
+++ b/2011/akari/try.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,24 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# try.sh - demonstrate IOCCC winner 2011/akari
+#
 
-make clobber akari || exit 1
+# make sure CC is set so that when we do make CC="$CC" it isn't empty. Doing it
+# this way allows us to have the user specify a different compiler in an easy
+# way.
+if [[ -z "$CC" ]]; then
+    CC="cc"
+fi
+
+# in this case we won't fail if we can't compile the code because we can still
+# run the supplementary program.
+make CC="$CC" all >/dev/null
+
+# clean out old binaries except the entry itself
+rm -f akari2 akari3 akari4
+
+# clear screen after compilation so that only the entry is shown
+clear
 
 ./akari < example.ppm > odd_output.ppm
 ./akari - - even < example.ppm > even_output.ppm