Is it normal to accidently and often kill conversations with strangers

Traditional bad social backstory: Moved few times as child, not many friends, some bullying, leveled out in HS and so on

Most of my personality is good except for two things (pretty much):

I can make a convo awkward fast because I don't know how to keep it alive and respond appropriately to certain things (I act WAY to formal sometimes)

and

Back to not-so-great childhood, by early HS I had an easy dead-locked poker face. I could think something is hilarious but my expression could be like someone just joked about a slaughter at a pre-school (guess I would be great in high stakes poker). I've fixed this more or less myself, and I'm 1 year out of HS today.