I suppose you can try and start a conversation by talking about yourself, or “a friend”, then using that as a hook for asking about them. Or use a low hanging fruit, like a popular sport (something weird in USA, soccer everywhere else):
“Damn, my friend can’t stop talking about his team, do you follow sports?” On a no, it’s a perfect opportunity to comment something like “Yeah, better stuff to spend your time with, right?”
But how do you even know about his Hot wheels collection? It’s not like I ask all store clerks for their hobby.
He had a couple hot wheels out on the counter and I asked about them, so he was excited to share his hobby with me.
Ask them about themselves, i guess. Im sure it’s in the book somewhere.
I suppose you can try and start a conversation by talking about yourself, or “a friend”, then using that as a hook for asking about them. Or use a low hanging fruit, like a popular sport (something weird in USA, soccer everywhere else):
“Damn, my friend can’t stop talking about his team, do you follow sports?” On a no, it’s a perfect opportunity to comment something like “Yeah, better stuff to spend your time with, right?”