(Photo courtesy of The Great Love Debate)

The Great Love Debate travels to different cities to answer the question, "Why is everyone still single?"

Nothing says romance quite like a bunch of people in a room arguing. A traveling debate forum coming to Phoenix poses the question, “Why is everyone here single?”

Picture this: 200 men and women sit on opposite sides of a theater. Every one of them is single and ready to mingle, but sometimes reaching across the aisle to make that happen is not so easy.

It’s called the Great Love Debate and it travels from city to city. And Wednesday, it hits Phoenix. Brian Howie started the debates to get local singles involved in the discussion.

"My job is to raise questions and the audiences sort of provide a lot of the answers," he said.

After 83 shows, Howie has noticed some regional differences in audiences around the country. For example, audiences in the South are generally younger than those in other areas. And on the coasts, he says people tend to be more headstrong in their opinions. But for many across the country, this isn’t their first dating rodeo. 

"So a lot of them are single again, or single longer, or they’re encountering a different landscape in 2015 than they might have encountered in 1995," Howie said. "20 years ago, if you wanted to say hi to somebody you had to say hi to them. Real life."

But real life is not always so easy.

"It’s like an interview, you know," said Lukas Pagel-Stumpp. "It’s like for a job or something. There’s only one position open and that’s that one girl. That’s how it’s like!"

Pagel-Stumpp is sitting on the patio of a Scottsdale bar. He’s here for a singles event, in real life no less. He’s hoping meeting with a group will make it a little easier to mingle.

"Going by yourself to a club or a bar or something like that, it causes tension," he said.

Howie advises not to overthink things.

"You know, your only goal on a first date really should be a second date," he said. "That’s it."

But how do you get to the second date? Well, that’s debatable.

The Great Love Debate will be at Phoenix Theatre Wednesday at 7:30.