diff --git a/confluent_client/bin/confetty b/confluent_client/bin/confetty
index e4e30e6d..043881a4 100755
--- a/confluent_client/bin/confetty
+++ b/confluent_client/bin/confetty
@@ -76,6 +76,11 @@ import confluent.termhandler as termhandler
 import confluent.tlvdata as tlvdata
 import confluent.client as client
 
+try:
+    unicode
+except NameError:
+    unicode = str
+
 conserversequence = '\x05c'  # ctrl-e, c
 clearpowermessage = False