Pure Famous/Historic Alias names and Actions for playing cards (this includes actions and/or objects that can also be used as aliases for the playing cards). When concocting a mnemonic story to remember your stack you can use the alias name or the action or object but never more than one of the aliases for that playing card.

Note that I have this same list on another thread but that list does not include the action/object that this list has. This list allows the use of the Dominic O'Brien PA (Person Action memory technique). Note that the word after the comma is just another alias for that playing card and it could be an action or it could be an object.

Or instead of using this list as an adjunct to the Dominic O'Brien PA method you can simply use these aliases to directly tie to position numbers in your stack (direct pegging) by coming up with your own permanent associations of the below aliases to specific position numbers within a 52 card mem deck.

Spades:
AS - Red Baron, machine gunning (Ace of death in the skies)
2S - Sherlock Holmes and Watson, magnifying glass (2 detectives like Sam Spade)
3S - Godzilla, breathing out fire (has three spade symbols on back)
4S - Darth Vader, red laser (says "use the Four S")
5S - Spock, Vulcan salute or pinch (five spade symbols on fingernails)
6S - Popeye, spinach (6 spade symbols tattooed on arms)
7S - Samurai, sword (7 samurai used shovels to sword fight)
8S - Snowman, carrot (looks like figure 8 & shovels snow)
9S - Cat woman, scratching (cats have nine lives, black outfit)
10S - Farmer Shepherd, Shepherd hook (dug 10 holes for fence posts)
JS - JFK, mooning (Jack of death, killed in office)
QS - Queen Marie Antoinette, cake (evil dark Queen)
KS - Henry VIII, chopping (evil dark king)

Hearts:
AH - Cupid, arrows (Ace with bow and arrow to heart)
2H - Dr Who, zapping (physically has two hearts)
3H - Andrews Sisters, bugles (three lovely hearts)
4H - Beatles/Ringo, drumsticks (4 heartthrob's for girls)
5H - Superman, kryptonite (pretend he has five hearts on his chest symbol)
6H - Miley Cyrus, wrecking ball (she has congenital sick heart)
7H - Seven Dwarfs, soap bubbles (seven lovable Dwarfs)
8H - Marilyn Monroe, whispering (her figure looks like an eight and men loved her)
9H - Colonel Klink, spitting sauerkraut (no love, nein hearts)
10H - Tin Man, oiling (Oz tin Man wanted heart)
JH - John Travolta, pointing up (Sat Night Fever heart throb)
QH - Dolly Parton, yodeling (queen of our hearts)
KH - Elvis Presley, twisting (king heartthrob for women)

Clubs:
AC - Tiger Woods, golf club (Ace of the golf clubs)
2C - Fred Flintstone, stoning (holds stone club in each hand)
3C - Frankenstein, choking (3 clubs shaped stitches across forehead)
4C - Leprechaun, yellow ribbon (likes the four of clovers 4C)
5C - Grim Reaper, scything (scythe is club & shaped like #5)
6C - Shiva statue, rust (has six arms each with a club)
7C - Frank Sinatra, dice (Vegas performer at 7 clubs, and dice rolls lucky 7)
8C - Goliath, boasting (holds 4 battle clubs in each hand thus has eight clubs)
9C - Babe Ruth, giant bat (9 means baseball and a baseball bat is a club)
10C - Bowler, bowling (bowling pins are 10 clubs)
JC - Pirate, buckles belt (Jack Sparrow fought using clubs sometimes)
QC - Joan of Arc, boxing gloves (she fought with clubs sometimes)
KC - Sheriff, handcuffs (sheriffs are the king of Billy clubs)

Diamonds:
AD - Randy Johnson, duck quacks (Ace pitcher baseball diamond) killed duck with a pitch
2D - General Patton, slaps (2 diamonds on pistol handle)
3D - Dracula, bites (wore necklace with 3 diamonds)
4D - Elizabeth Taylor, marries (wore four diamond rings)
5D - Magic Johnson, bounces (5 NBA championships rings)
6D - Coach Belichick, frowns (6 Superbowl championship rings)
7D - Quarterback Tom Brady, deflates (7 super Bowl championship rings)
8D - Thor, hammer (ate diamonds for energy)
9D - Scottish bagpiper, bagpipes (3 diamonds on each of three pipes giving nine diamonds)
10D - Tennis player, tennis racket (Chris Everett lost her diamond bracelet playing tennis therefore she is the "Tennis of Diamonds")
JD - Jack Tut, pyramid (ancient rich Egyptian priest)
QD - Queen Victoria, holds hands (rich English queen)
KD - Winston Churchill, smoke (wore huge diamond ring)

Of course the word "rich" equates to diamonds.

I have pretty strong mnemonic links of the names to each playing card but some are weaker and less well known, but these are easily overcome with a little bit of true and fictitious associations.

I am changing the famous person for the queen of clubs from Joan of Arc to Laila Ali (Muhammad Ali's famous boxing daughter who retired undefeated 24-0).

The reason for this change is that I had two prominent French women to represent the QC and QS (Joan of Arc and Marie Antoinette respectively) and sometimes would mentally confuse the two.

I really like the boxing glove as the extra alias to represent the fighting woman QC and want to keep that mental image. Therefore anytime I see or hear the name "Queen of Clubs" I think in my head "The boxing fighting woman" and mentally have the image of the Queen of Clubs wearing a boxing glove.

Using the O'Brien PA system (Person, Action/object) to construct a mnemonic story sometimes you will use the person's name as the alias and sometimes you use the action/object as the alias depending on where a playing card is within the stack you are memorizing.

For example using the Mnemonica Stack and the Solar System for the Loci:
The queen of clubs happens to be the first card of its four card group and that four card group happens to be on the planet Earth. Therefore I have the mental image of Laila Ali (QC), whispering (8H), in the ear of Popeye (6S), while he is giving the Vulcan salute (5S). But because Laila's facial image is not that famous I also have her wearing a boxing glove (so I am cheating a little bit because I am including the action/object, the boxing glove, where theoretically I should only need the person).

As some of you may know I really hate the PAO system used with 17 Loci for a magician to memorize a mem deck (because it is difficult to know the position of a playing card using that technique). It's not the PAO part that I dislike, it's the 17 loci that causes problems. In fact, I rather like being able to use a Person, or Action, or Object as an alias for a playing card.

I do NOT use a regimented rule to differentiate between "Action" and "Object" as does the PAO system. Some playing cards I just use PA such as the Eight of Hearts is Marilyn Monroe, whispering. Other playing cards I just use PO such as the Five of Hearts is Superman, kryptonite. The Six of Spades is Popeye, spinach.

Note that in the mental mnemonic story of "Laila Ali whispering to Popeye who is giving the Vulcan salute" that there was no need to use "spinach" as an alias.

Note that with the O'Brien PA system that cards that are in the odd number position the mnemonic story will use the Person's name as the alias in the story, whereas even position playing cards will use the Action as the alias in the story. For me I will use either an Action or an Object for the playing cards in the even positions.

I still think direct pegging or brute force methods are better (better than Loci methods) for most magicians because direct pegging lets us instantly know the position of any card. The exception would be imo a 52 meaningful Loci system which is pretty good).