That tangentially reminds me of an old (I believe) Steve Martin bit:

People who go skiing usually will put their contact info on their skis somewhere so that when someone steals them they can call them up and say, "Hey Steve, thanks for the nice skis!". So a fun thing to do is when you're getting on the lift with a stranger you look down and read their name off their skis. Then when you're half way up the mountain you turn to them and you start talking to them by name like you're an old long lost friend.

Did that once and the guy's mind was blown and he just looked at me like I was completely mental. His name was "Rental" . . .