Hugh Jackman 'I tried to cheat' on Jimmy Fallon

Hugh Jackman on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Photo / Getty Images

It's lucky Hugh Jackman doesn't have to wear his Wolverine claws in real life, because they would have made the giant game of pool he played on The Tonight Show rather difficult.

The Australian actor squared off against host Jimmy Fallon in the newly invented sport of "Pool Bowling" - and lost.

The pair used their hands instead of cues to knock bowling balls into pockets on a giant felt table, and Fallon seemed to have some untapped talent for the wacky mixture of pool and lawn bowls.

Hugh Jackman plays Jimmy Fallon in a game of Pool Bowling. Photo / Getty Images

When Jackman realised he was getting beaten, the 45-year-old X-Men star made a terrible but hilarious attempt to cheat, placing one of Fallon's out-of-play balls back on the table when the host's back was turned.

"I tried to cheat, but I put my own ball back out there," Jackman confessed.

"It's a really bad moment for me."

Afterwards, Jackman recounted his experience performing at Joan Rivers' funeral on Sunday, and revealed that the US comedian had approached him about singing at the memorial service years ago after seeing him star in Broadway musical The Boy from Oz.

"When Joan Rivers asks, you just answer," Jackman told Fallon.

"She had planned everything out. She had seen me in a show called The Boy from Oz ... and I sang a song from that. It was called, Quiet Please, There's A Lady On Stage.

It's a beautiful celebration of a woman, and it was for her, and the entire audience in the synagogue got up and started clapping and cheering.

"The whole thing was very uplifting, very touching and moving, but funny."

Rivers, 81, died a week after suffering a cardiac arrest during a routine throat operation.

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- AAP