yo wil master, people have different preferences when it comes to conversation topics. I'm not a fan of canned stuff, however I do stick to a certain routine when talking to new people.
It goes something like this. Open, make observation about person/situation, general small talk, then I'll ask something completely random usually it barely makes sense. Stick with me on this one
. The random question is what I'll use to spark some life into the conversation and set myself aside as a confident/different person who's not afraid to ask someone "what's your favourite flavour of sticker?". From there your options open up, it serves as an ice breaker usually gives you some excuse for cheap kino/negs on targets choice and disqualifies any interest in the target too. There is of course a downside to this in that if it doesn't work you'll crash and burn, but generally speaking if someone's wierded out by it to that extent I probably don't want to bother talking to them for that long anyways, look at it like a "fun test".
Peacocking works well for something keeping the conversation going too, wearing something as simple as an unusual necklace gives them an excuse to talk to you some more while you tell them some story about where you got it.
hope some of this helps