The extravagance of all sorts of oral forms at the turn of the 19th century has not failed to elicit comment. Cabarets, a locus of bohemian life, welcomed exuberant performances often contrasted with the symbolist experiments linked to the Verb. But are they really distinct aesthetic experiences ? This paper focuses on showing how thinking about orality can enable thinking the continuity between these practices. Beyond the differences and the interpretative polemics, orality could well be, within the sphere of decadence, the most common denominator.