diff --git a/afl-cmin b/afl-cmin
index 08dcbcae..baa003c5 100755
--- a/afl-cmin
+++ b/afl-cmin
@@ -4,11 +4,17 @@ test "$SYS" = "Darwin" && {
   echo Error: afl-cmin does not work on Apple currently. please use afl-cmin.bash instead.
   exit 1
 }
+THISPATH=`dirname ${0}`
+
+# call afl-cmin.py if it can be executed successfully.
+if $THISPATH/afl-cmin.py --help > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+  exec $THISPATH/afl-cmin.py "$@"
+fi
+
 export AFL_QUIET=1
 export ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=0
-THISPATH=`dirname ${0}`
 export PATH="${THISPATH}:$PATH"
-awk -v script_dir="$THISPATH" -f - -- ${@+"$@"} <<'EOF'
+awk -f - -- ${@+"$@"} <<'EOF'
 #!/usr/bin/awk -f
 # awk script to minimize a test corpus of input files
 #
@@ -258,10 +264,6 @@ BEGIN {
   # sanity checks
   if (!prog_args[0] || !in_dir || !out_dir) usage()
 
-  if (0 == system( script_dir "/afl-cmin.py --help > /dev/null 2>&1" )) {
-    print "[*] Are you aware of the experimental afl-cmin.py that minimize corpus much faster?"
-  }
-
   target_bin = prog_args[0] 
 
   # Do a sanity check to discourage the use of /tmp, since we can't really