Metrano's first film role was as a truck driver in the 1961 Cold War thriller Rocket Attack U.S.A.. Among Metrano's TV appearances were a 1968 episode of Ironside, a 1968 episode of Bewitched, a 1976 episode of The Practice, and The Streets of San Francisco. In 1977, he was a regular in the cast of the short-lived CBS situation comedy Loves Me, Loves Me Not. However, he is better known for his frequent appearances on talk and variety shows in the early 1970s, especially The Tonight Show, as a "magician" performing absurd tricks, such as making his fingers "jump" from one hand to another, while constantly humming an inane theme song – "Fine and Dandy", an early 1930s composition by Kay Swift. Art worked with Dick Towers, a singer and entertainer, as his straight man early in his career.