diff --git a/demos/demo_git_compat.sh b/demos/demo_git_compat.sh
index 6b841c88bf..b45e37578b 100755
--- a/demos/demo_git_compat.sh
+++ b/demos/demo_git_compat.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ run_command "cd Hello-World"
 
 comment "Inspect it:"
 run_command "jj log -r 'all()'"
+blank
 run_command "jj diff -r b1"
 
 comment "The repo is backed by the actual Git repo:"
diff --git a/demos/demo_juggle_conflicts.sh b/demos/demo_juggle_conflicts.sh
index b7f423a9cb..9643751632 100755
--- a/demos/demo_juggle_conflicts.sh
+++ b/demos/demo_juggle_conflicts.sh
@@ -26,13 +26,11 @@ comment "Let's reorder the second and third commits:"
 run_command "jj rebase -s third -d first"
 run_command "jj rebase -s second -d third"
 run_command "jj log"
-comment "The commit labeled \"third\" has a conflict,
-as expected. What's more interesting is
-that the top commit has no conflict! That's
-because it has the changes from all three
-commits applied to it."
+comment "The commit labeled \"third\" has a conflict, as expected. What's more
+interesting is that the top commit has no conflict! That's because it
+has the changes from all three commits applied to it.
 
-comment "Let's verify that by looking at its contents:"
+Let's verify that by looking at its contents:"
 run_command "jj co second"
 run_command "cat file"
 
diff --git a/demos/demo_resolve_conflicts.sh b/demos/demo_resolve_conflicts.sh
index a83dc646e2..d4f8a3cf50 100755
--- a/demos/demo_resolve_conflicts.sh
+++ b/demos/demo_resolve_conflicts.sh
@@ -16,21 +16,20 @@ run_command "jj describe -m \"README: say which world\""
 run_command "echo \"Hello Earth!\" > README"
 run_command "jj diff"
 
-comment "We're going to rebase it onto commit b1.
+comment "We're going to rebase it onto commit b1b.
 That commit looks like this:"
-run_command "jj diff -r b1"
+run_command "jj diff -r b1b"
 
 comment "Now rebase:"
-run_command "jj rebase -d b1"
+run_command "jj rebase -d b1b"
 
-comment "Huh, that seemed to succeed. Let's take a
-look at the repo:"
+comment "That seemed to succeed but we are also told there is now a conflict.
+Let's take a look at the repo:"
 run_command "jj log -r 'all()'"
 run_command "jj status"
 
-comment "As you can see, the rebased commit has a
-conflict. The file in the working copy looks
-like this:"
+comment "Indeed, the rebased commit has a conflict. The conflicted file
+in the working copy looks like this:"
 run_command "cat README"
 
 comment "Now we will resolve the conflict:"
diff --git a/demos/demo_working_copy.sh b/demos/demo_working_copy.sh
index e8085c6c78..9c244a7fb9 100755
--- a/demos/demo_working_copy.sh
+++ b/demos/demo_working_copy.sh
@@ -8,17 +8,16 @@ cd Hello-World
 
 comment "We are in the octocat/Hello-World repo.
 We have an empty working copy on top of master:"
-run_command "jj status"
 run_command "jj log"
+run_command "jj status"
 
 comment "Now make some changes in the working copy:"
 run_command "echo \"Goodbye World!\" > README"
 run_command "echo stuff > new-file"
 
-comment "Our working copy's commit ID changed
-because we made changes:"
+comment "Because of these changes, our working copy is no longer marked as \"(empty)\".
+Also, its commit ID (starting with a blue character) changed:"
 run_command "jj status"
-run_command "jj log"
 
 comment "Add a branch so we can easily refer to this
 commit:"
@@ -27,24 +26,27 @@ run_command "jj log"
 
 comment "Start working on a new change off of master:"
 run_command "jj co master"
-run_command "jj log"
-
-comment "Note that the working copy is now clean; the
+comment "Note that we were told the working copy is now empty (AKA clean). The
 \"goodbye\" change stayed in its own commit:"
+
+run_command "jj log"
+comment "Let's do a sanity check: 'jj status' should tell us that
+the working copy is clean."
 run_command "jj status"
 
 comment "Modify a file in this new change:"
 run_command "echo \"Hello everyone!\" > README"
+run_command "jj status"
 
 comment "The working copy is not special; we can, for
 example, set the description of any commit.
 First, set it on the working copy:"
-run_command "jj describe -m everyone"
+# The output with the description of the working copy messes up the parallel
+# a bit, so we redact it.
+run_command_output_redacted "jj describe -m everyone"
 
 comment "Now set it on the change we worked on before:"
 run_command "jj describe goodbye -m goodbye"
 
 comment "Inspect the result:"
 run_command "jj log"
-
-blank
diff --git a/demos/helpers.sh b/demos/helpers.sh
index cdc2ceeb5e..99a9f09730 100644
--- a/demos/helpers.sh
+++ b/demos/helpers.sh
@@ -16,6 +16,14 @@ run_command() {
   COLUMNS=${RUN_COMMAND_COLUMNS-${COLUMNS-80}} eval "$@"
 }
 
+run_command_output_redacted() {
+  echo "\$ $@"
+  # `bash` often resets $COLUMNS, so we also
+  # allow $RUN_COMMAND_COLUMNS
+  eval "$@" > /dev/null
+  echo '... (output redacted) ...'
+}
+
 run_command_allow_broken_pipe() {
   run_command "$@" || {
     EXITCODE="$?"