Hey Pandas, What's Your Go-To Ice Breaker?

As an autistic person I'm supposed to hate small talk. I do, about meaningless things, but people are surprised that I'm willing to chat about shared interests. I notice details like if someone in person is wearing their pride flag somehow or if someone online has a profile picture of a character I like. I pretend not to be certain and ask if it is what I think it is, and if the other person feels like talking they'll tell me about the thing.

I hardly ever get out into "the real world" as we live in the middle of nowhere so no need for small talk.
However, if I would, it would most certainly be about dogs, cats or art ;p
And once the conversation is on the go, there are no more problems.
I can talk with strangers if I have to, but I prefer not to ;)

Hobbies and interests. It's a great way to learn more about people - learn things you didn't know about hobby wise - and you can usually get a lot of people talking for a long while once they're on a topic they like.

Are you gay? That's all I say than I start dancing. Got to show them my weird side of we're going to be friends

I've started asking if they listen to podcasts and if so, which ones they like and why.

I also usually comment positively on outfit, jewelry, color of outfit "oh that color looks great on you", shoes, hair etc. I am a not very stylish middle-aged women, so I am not sure if the 20 somethings like my compliment or not. Do teenagers like anything that someone my age likes?!

There are places in the USA where the majority of people living there now moved from elsewhere. I always ask, "So, where are you from originally?" This usually leads to a landslide of information that, if you listen carefully, can give clues about topics to discuss further.

I think I speak for most people when I say my go-to icebreaker breaking is "So ... How's life?"

I talk about my beloved rescue dog, Brutus Augustus.