For these festive actors its a sign of success, and the louder people in the audience shout, the better they feel.
"It's always a good feeling to get all the kids booing at you," says pantomime star Danny Grehan. "If they're booing at you, you know you've done a good job."
He's playing the evil Abanazar in the Porthcawl production of Aladdin.
Fresh from their collaboration with Tinchy Stryder, the Chuckle Brothers will take a starring role in Darlington's The Chuckles of Oz
Better known as Neighbours veteran Karl Kennedy, Alan Fletcher will feature in Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood in Dunstable.
Craig Revel Horwood is playing one of the ultimate pantomime baddies - Captain Hook - in Dartford's production of Peter Pan.
Blue singer Duncan James is taking to the stage in Birmingham, where he will take to the stage in Jack and the Beanstalk.
"The whole participation of people shouting, you never get that apart from in panto, where everybody is allowed just to vocalise that enjoyment," says Dick Bradnum, who will be playing Widow Twankey in Aladdin.
"In the age that we live in, people are in front of screens a lot of different types and to get them in front of a live experience where there are real human beings around them and real noise, there is something genuinely uplifting about it. It's not a bad job to be doing," adds Danny.
Working all through the Christmas holidays does have its downsides and there are some things the paid wish they had more time to enjoy.
"The only thing with panto is you've got to work on the 26th so you always miss out on cold turkey and chips, which is one of my favourite bits of Christmas," says Danny.
Dick adds: "Boxing Day audiences are a little bit quieter in my experience because I think they're still recovering from Christmas Day.
"You can still smell the turkey off them. Bloated, sitting there happy."
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube
People heckling you would be cause for alarm - unless you're a pantomime baddie that is.