I have a fail-safe conversation starter and it's exactly everything you're looking for. It works EVERY time.

You get within proximity of a stranger, make eye contact and they say, "How's it going?" I don't know why we say this as a culture, but it's 75% of conversation starters whether we like it or not.

My answer to that is" Best day EVER!" and it usually gets a laugh or smile, and they want to talk about whether that's a good philosophy or they want to ask me what's so great. I then say something super quick and turn it back on them.