Press Release

While Jehovah's Witnesses hold their international convention at 3Arena in Stockholm, former members will carry out peaceful demonstrations outside the arena. On the evening of 4 July, the stand-up show Doomsday Comedy will also take place at Bacchi Syre in Gamla stan — a show where every comedian is a former member of religious groups and sects.

The organisers believe that media reporting on the Jehovah's Witness convention should also highlight the experiences of people who have left the organisation.

Jehovah's Witnesses will receive extensive media coverage during the convention. We want to give a voice to people who have left the movement and who have often paid a high personal price for doing so, says Jonas Skogstroll, founder of Doomsday Comedy.

Jonas Skogstroll grew up in Malmköping in a family where Jehovah's Witnesses had been present for five generations. He describes how he lost faith in the organisation's teachings as early as 2004 but remained for many years because leaving would mean losing contact with family and friends. After publicly criticising the organisation's leadership and its handling of abuse cases, he was disfellowshipped in 2018.

Since then he has worked on children's rights, religious freedom, and support for people leaving closed religious communities.

I want people within Jehovah's Witnesses to know that there is life outside the organisation. Many who contact me are young people who want to leave but do not know how to start a new life, says Skogstroll.

Humour has become a way to process difficult experiences.

Together with Norwegian comedian Snorre Bue, Skogstroll created the concept Doomsday Comedy, where former sect members tell their own life stories and experiences of leaving closed religious communities.

The show has previously been performed in Norway, London, and New Zealand and is now heading for Edinburgh Fringe.

In a review from New Zealand, Flat City Field Notes wrote:

“The final performer is show deviser Jonas Skogstroll, who contrasts his past life as a Jehovah's Witness with his current life as a comedian and human rights activist. … He is delightful, basically a one-man Muppet Show … Skogstroll deconstructs his upbringing with great confidence.”