By myself, I'd usually put a few good pinches into my bowl and go all big bad wolf on it until I huff, puff and blow my mind away.

With friends, I've only had the honor of being a host twice - smoking with my own tradition I just made up all of a sudden at the first time of hosting where two pipes are loaded - I got the first double impact, lit em up one at a time then passed one pipe to my right then to my left. For 3 people, this got us all stoned beyond comprehension as we just stared at my fiber-optic ufo thing as it changed colors, occasionally busting a gut from laughing so hard.

With strangers amongst friends... well, it's a little awkward at first but that's how I made a few of my close friends. The real quite ones I were suspicious of, but I just think sometimes that they were really shy or just uncomfortable. A few tokes takes care of that half of the time, or make them SERIOUSLY paranoid. I just tell them to go chill in the bathroom for a little, put some water on their face.