diff --git a/zappa/core.py b/zappa/core.py
index 2798ae786..4b4be50b6 100644
--- a/zappa/core.py
+++ b/zappa/core.py
@@ -437,7 +437,12 @@ def create_handler_venv(self):
         pip_return_code = pip_process.returncode
 
         if pip_return_code:
-          raise EnvironmentError("Pypi lookup failed")
+            output = pip_process.stdout
+            if hasattr(output, 'decode'):
+                output = output.decode('utf-8')
+            raise EnvironmentError(
+                "Pypi lookup failed\n{}".format(output)
+            )
 
         return ve_path
 
@@ -2135,7 +2140,7 @@ def create_stack_template(  self,
 
         # build a fresh template
         self.cf_template = troposphere.Template()
-        self.cf_template.add_description('Automatically generated with Zappa')
+        self.cf_template.set_description('Automatically generated with Zappa')
         self.cf_api_resources = []
         self.cf_parameters = {}
 
diff --git a/zappa/handler.py b/zappa/handler.py
index 78a31cfda..4de71716b 100644
--- a/zappa/handler.py
+++ b/zappa/handler.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import json
 import logging
 import os
+import shlex
 import sys
 import traceback
 import tarfile
@@ -405,7 +406,7 @@ def handler(self, event, context):
 
             # Couldn't figure out how to get the value into stdout with StringIO..
             # Read the log for now. :[]
-            management.call_command(*event['manage'].split(' '))
+            management.call_command(*shlex.split(event['manage']))
             return {}
 
         # This is an AWS-event triggered invocation.